Idea Cellular consolidated Q4 dips marginally to Rs 274.3 crore

Aditya Birla group company Idea Cellular has posted a marginal dip in net profit of Rs 274.3 crore on a consolidated basis for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2009, impacted by its launch in two new circles and a right of use agreement signed with Indus Towers.

On a comparative basis, there is 0.87 per cent drop from Rs 276.69 crore net profit posted during the fourth quarter of the previous financial year.

“The slight fall of expenses is mainly due to the roll out of services in two new circles, Mumbai and Bihar, while an Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) signed with independent tower company – Indus Towers – has a 2.2 per cent impact,” said

Akshaya Moondra, CFO, Idea Cellular. There was also an impact of the Spice Communications’ acquisition, which was made during the year and is being integrated with Idea Cellular’s operations.

Idea had entered into an IRU agreement, effective January 1, 2009, with Indus Towers – an equal joint venture between Bharti Airtel, Idea cellular and Vodafone-Essar – covering Idea’s 11,094 towers. At the EBITDA level, the net negative impact of Indus IRU is 2.2 per cent for the quarter.

On a standalone basis, the company posted a 10 per cent rise in net profit for the reporting quarter at Rs 303.20 crore, compared with Rs 276.7 crore recorded during the same period of previous financial year. The total revenues rose 44 per cent to Rs 2,862.60 crore from Rs 1,985.26 crore recorded during the comparable period of previous financial year.

For the 12-month period ended March 31, the company's consolidated net profit declined 14 per cent to Rs 900.87 crore from Rs 1,042.31 crore posted during the same period a year ago. Total revenue rose 51 per cent to Rs 10,148.41 crore from Rs 6,737.45 crore last year.

The company’s minutes of usage for the quarter fell to 402 minutes from 416 minutes posted during the comparable quarter earlier, while average revenue per user dipped to Rs 256 from Rs 266 posted in last financial year. Separately, the company has increases its capex spend for the financial year 2010 (FY’10) to Rs 6,000 crore, which would be mainly used for its expansion plans.

“We will use the capex for our expansion plans, mainly for rolling out of services in the remaining circles and for infrastructure needs like +setting up towers. Our thrust would be on the new circles, while a part of this would also be used for the existing circles,” Idea Cellular Chief Financial Officer Akshaya Moondra said.

This is an increase of around Rs 500 crore from the previous year’s total capex of Rs 5,500 crore. The company, which already has operations in 16 circles, is gearing up to launch services in the remaining six telecom service areas by the end of the year. This will make it the sixth pan-India operator.

The company will launch services across Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Chennai circles during this quarter, and will commence services in circles like Kolkata, West Bengal, North East and Jammu & Kashmir by next quarter, Moondra added.