Uninor posts highest revenue growth amongst all Telenor units

India has emerged as the fastest growing market for Norwegian telecom operator Telenor with its local arm, Uninor, posting highest revenue growth amongst all its units worldwide at 47% to reach about Rs 1,074 crore in the third quarter ended September 30.

The company had posted revenue of Rs 729 crore in the same period a year ago.

The total growth in Uninor revenue was largely organic with 38% contribution from rise in subscriber number and revenue per user.

Apart from Norway and India, Telenor operates in Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Montenegro and Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar.

However, operating loss of Uninor widened to about Rs 195 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 143 crore in the corresponding period of 2013.

Telenor attributed the increase in operating and capital expenditure of Uninor to network expansion during the quarter.

The company has announced setting up 5,000 new mobile tower sites during current fiscal, of which 4,400 are deployed now.

Telenor Group said it has reported "all time high revenue" at about Rs 27,685 crore during the reported quarter and Rs 81,003 crore in first three quarters of current year.

The Norwegian group added 3.4 million new customers across its 11 units worldwide during July-September 2014 with highest contribution coming from Uninor.

"We added 3.4 million new mobile subscribers during the period, fuelled by customer uptake in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and our newest market Myanmar," Telenor Group President and CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas said in a statement.

Uninor, which operates only in 6 out of 22 circle in India, added 1.8 million subscribers during the reported period.

"Telenor's Indian operation added 1.8 million subscriptions during the third quarter. At the end of the quarter, the subscription base was 32% higher than the same quarter last year," Telenor said.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) of Uninor increased by four% on yearly basis to Rs 104.

"The ARPU growth was driven by higher share of Internet users and improved quality of the subscription base. At the end of the third quarter, close to 20% of the subscribers were active data users," the statement said.

Telenor said it received spectrum for Assam service on September 8.

Uninor became 100% owned subsidiary of Telenor on October 16 after Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved its proposal in September.