Jio earnings show strong business momentum: Analysts

With Reliance Jio revealing its second quarter (July-September), 2017-18, analysts feel that the results demonstrate that the business has maintained strong momentum since it started charging in April.

"Jio's maiden financial results demonstrate that the business has maintained strong momentum since it started charging in April, with continued growth in active and paying subscribers," global financial services company UBS said in its report here on Monday.

Reliance Jio posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 6,147 crore for the second quarter on Friday.

"While reported ARPU (average revenue per unit) appears a bit higher than consensus expectations, management's commentary looks to suggest the company is targeting ARPU increases in the coming months. Churn rate was reported at 1 per cent with management pointing towards likely improvement in churn in coming quarters," the report added.

The subscriber base of the company as on September 30, 2017 stood at 138.6 million. Net subscriber addition during the quarter was at 15.3 million.

Total wireless data traffic during the quarter was at 378 crore GB and average voice traffic during the quarter at 267 crore minutes per day, the statement said.

Bank for America Merrill Lynch in a statement said "A key concern for the industry was if Jio fails to gain traction/makes losses then it would lead to continued high competitive intensity which would impact the overall industry profitability.

"However with Jio showing positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) numbers in the first commercial quarter itself we believe that the risks of irrational competition reduce materially going forward. Indeed when Jio revises its tariffs upwards, we expect a material upward revision in the tariff to sustain a quarter-of-quarter improvement from the reported Rs 156 levels," it added.

"A positive margin was better than the market expected, but we believe it may take a few quarters for margins to normalize, since some costs may be getting capitalised," said Morgan Stanley analysing the EBITDA of the company.

--IANS

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