Vsnl Clocks 23% Higher Net Profit
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has posted a 23 per cent rise in net profits and almost a 18 per cent increase in total revenue during 1996-97.
The countrys monopoly overseas telecommunications company yesterday reported a net profit for 1996-97 at Rs 503 crore, as against Rs 408.8 crore in the previous year. The EPS has gone up from Rs 52.10 to Rs 62.88 on pre-GDR capital. The companys share capital moved up from Rs 80 crore to Rs 92.2 crore on account of 1.2165 crore shares issued in the form of GDR. Income from operations increased to Rs 5194.4 crore in 1996-97, as against Rs 4434.3 crore in the previous year.
Other income, too, increased from 38.8 crore in 1995-96 to Rs 68.3 crore in the year.
Total revenue, as a result, rose from Rs 4473.1 crore to Rs 5262.7 crore in 96-97. Total expenditure went up by 17 per cent to Rs 4364.3 crore from Rs 3723.5 crore. Gross profit recorded almost a 20 per cent increase from Rs 749.6 crore to Rs 898.4 crore.
The interest costs have come down from Rs 6.7 crore to Rs 4 crore and a Rs 328 crore provision has been made for tax, as against Rs 285 crore in the previous year.
B K Syngal, chairman and managing director, said the growth in traffic volume was encouraging and that he expected this trend to continue in the future.
Commenting on the financial performance for the year, VSNL said its four year compounded average growth rate for revenue was 26 per cent, and 45 per cent for net earnings.
Basic telephony continued to be VSNLs mainstay, contributing 96 per cent to the company revenue; the balance was on account of specialised services.
The total telephone traffic on the VSNL network rose from 20.43 per cent from 1,148 million paid minutes during 1996 to 1,382 million paid minutes for 1997. The ratio of incoming to outgoing calls, however, further deteriorated to 2.59 in 1996-97, from 2.4 in the previous year.
The total number of telephone circuits operated by VSNL has increased from 12,873 to 14,184 in 1997, the company said.
The VSNL scrip, however, lost almost Rs 54 at close on the BSE. The scrip opened strong at Rs 1224.75 but lost ground during the day to close at Rs 1170.