Reliance Communications net up 9.6 percent

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Friday reported a 9.6 percent jump in its net profits for the third quarter ended December 31, 2015, over the previous quarter of the current financial year.

In filings with the stock exchanges, the company reported a profit after tax of Rs.171 crore on a consolidated basis for the period under review, which includes the numbers for subsidiaries, against Rs.156 crore for the like month of the previous financial year.

The company's income, however, fell marginally by 1.1 percent to Rs.5,298 crore from Rs. 5,355 crore in the second quarter. Earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortisation was reported at Rs.1,803 crore, up 1.2 percent from Rs.1,782 crore.

Among the other highlights, the revenue per minute of its telecom operations was at 45.2 paise, up 0.9 quarter-on-quarter, while the average revenue per user grew 2.9 percent to Rs.142, the company statement said. "The total data traffic at 103.2 billion mega bits is up 6 percent."

The results were announced after the close of trading hours on Indian bourses. But during the day, the company's scrip gained Rs.16.60, or 4.58 percent, per share at Rs.379.10.

During the period, Reliance Communications signed a pact with Jio for trading its spectrum in the 800 MHz band across nine circles and for sharing the scarce airwaves in the same band across 17 circles.

"Reliance Communications has also paid an amount of Rs.5,383.84 crore as liberalisation fee to the Department of Telecom in relation to spectrum in the 800/850 MHz band held by it in 16 telecom circles," the company statement added.

The company also entered into an exclusive discussions for potential combination of it wireless business with Aircel and singed non-binding term sheet with Tillman Global and TPG for the sale of its tower business and related infrastructure.

The Reliance Group had a net worth of Rs. 91,500 crore ($15.3 billion), cash flows of Rs.10,200 crore ($1.7 billion), and net profit of Rs.4,700 crore ($800 million). The telecom arm has a customer base of 110 million, including some 2.6 million individual overseas retail customers.

-Indo-Asian News Service

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