Idea net profit doubles to Rs 468cr on strong data revenue

Higher revenue from data services helped the country's third largest telecom operator Idea Cellular more than double its net profit for the October- December quarter at Rs 467.73 crore.
It had posted Rs 228.57 crore profit in the same period last fiscal, 2012-13.
The Aditya Birla group firm saw its Q3, 2013-14 data revenue grow over 107 per cent.
Idea said its consolidated profit includes contribution of Rs 69.6 crore from Indus Towers.
The company's Q3 total income jumped from Rs 5,578.58 crore to Rs 6,613.06 crore.
"Continuing with our long-term trajectory of expanding market share saw the standalone revenue grow 17.8 per cent from Rs 5,613.5 crore to Rs 6,610.5 crore in the reporting period on the back of a 9.4 per cent growth in total minutes of use and 107.6 per cent in data volume," Idea managing director Himanshu Kapania told reporters this evening.

On a standalone basis too the net more than doubled from Rs 191.1 crore to Rs 398.1 crore, driven by voice and data businesses, Kapania added.

"Cash profit remained healthy at Rs 1,566.3 crore, a growth of 41.3 per cent, helping the company reduce net debt by Rs 2,736.4 crore to Rs 8,945.8 crore," said Chief Financial Officer Akshaya Moondra.
The consumer preference for brand Idea continues to rise as company added 18 million incremental subscribers in 2013, taking the subscribers base to 129 million.
Idea launched the highest-ever tower installations of 18,297 new sites (2G+3G) during 2013, expanding presence to over 344,000 towns and villages.

The company's VLR subscriber market share at 16.7 per cent and 'revenue market share at 15.8 per cent, registering an improvement of over 1 per cent in last one year. The ARPU increased to Rs 169 as against Rs 158 in Q3 and the subscriber churn fell by 1.2 per cent to 5.6 per cent.
In spite of higher network expansion and inflationary pressures, Idea continued its record of sharp pre-tax profit growth at 37.7 per cent, Kapania said.