Reliance Jio net profit up 1.2 pc to Rs 510 cr in Q4

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's telecom venture Reliance Jio today reported a 1.2 per cent sequential rise in standalone net profit in the fourth quarter of FY18, with earning per user dropping even as its subscriber base swelled.

The net profit stood at Rs 510 crore in the just-concluded quarter against Rs 504 crore notched in the October-December 2017 period.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited, said the strong financial results of Jio in a competitive market environment demonstrated the robustness of its business model and its ability to offer the most value to customers and partners.

"Jio has demonstrated that it can scale and sustain its strong financial performance," Ambani said in a statement.

The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), however, slipped to Rs 137.1 per month during the reported quarter. The ARPU stood at Rs 154 per subscriber per month in the three months to December.

Sunil Bharti Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, earlier this week, reported an ARPU of Rs 116 for the quarter, down by 26.7 per cent from Rs 158 it had registered a year ago.

Reliance Jio's standalone revenue from operation came in 3.6 per cent higher quarter-on-quarter to Rs 7,128 crore against 6,879 crore in the third quarter of FY18.

Jio posted its annual maiden profit of Rs 723 crore for the fiscal year 2017-18 and its revenue from operations stood at Rs 20,154 crore.

On the operational side, the subscriber base of Jio stood at 186.6 million at the end of March 2018. Reliance Jio reported total mobile data traffic of 506 crore GB with average data consumption per user per month of 9.7 GB and total voice traffic at 37,218 crore minutes during the just ended quarter.

The company statement said the strong financial performance was "despite competitive pressures".

Established operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are in the midst of a bruising tariff war following the entry of Reliance Jio, backed by India's richest businessman Mukesh Ambani.

Reliance Jio's free voice and dirt-cheap data offering have dented the financial metrics of incumbent operators, deepening the impact of regulatory decisions like cut in termination charges.

Earlier this week, Bharti Airtel posted a loss of Rs 652 crore before exceptional items for its India business in January-March quarter of 2018.