Idea Cellular rose 0.44% to Rs 171.10 at 9:50 IST on BSE after consolidated net profit rose 64% to Rs 767.06 crore on 21.87% increase in total income to Rs 8150.09 crore in Q3 December 2014 over Q3 December 2013.
The company announced Q3 results after market hours yesterday, 27 January 2015.
Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 67.70 points or 0.23% at 29,525.56.
On BSE, so far 1.05 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 3.6 lakh shares in the past one quarter.
The stock hit a high of Rs 172.60 and a low of Rs 169.65 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 177.30 on 19 September 2014. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 125.10 on 28 February 2014.
The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 27 January 2015, gaining 13.64% compared with Sensex's 8.55% rise. The scrip had, however, underperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 8.33% as against Sensex's 10.53% rise.
The large-cap mobile services provider has equity capital of Rs 3597.48 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
On a consolidated basis, Idea Cellular's net profit rose 1.48% to Rs 767.10 crore on 5.91% increase in total revenue to Rs 8017.50 crore in Q3 December 2014 over Q2 September 2014. Consolidated EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization) rose 10.52% to Rs 2752.70 in Q3 December 2014 over Q2 September 2014. EBITDA margins increased to 34.3% in Q3 December 2014 compared with 32.9% in Q2 September 2014.
In the calendar year (CY) 2014, Idea added 22.2 million subscribers (VLR net adds) as company's subscriber market share raced past 18.1% (TRAI November 2014 VLR Report). Inspite of huge 17% incremental new customer addition in year 2014, the customer mobile spend (ARPU) on Idea network increased by Rs 10 to Rs 179 (Q3 December 2014 over Q3 December 2013).
Idea continued its journey of strengthening its competitive market standing with Q2 September 2014 Revenue Market Share (RMS) at 17.2%, an increase of 1.4% compared to Q2 September 2013.
During the quarter, Idea carried 170.7 billion minutes on its network, registering 5.1% sequential quarterly growth and 46.1 billion Megabytes of Mobile data on its 2G+3G platform, at 16.9% quarterly expansion, with both lines of business delivering strong performance. The 'Value Added Service' (VAS) contribution has improved sharply to 23.1% of service revenue, an unprecedented gain of 7% in last one year.
Due to competitive pressures and increased contribution from new service areas, the Voice realisation remained under pressure and has fallen sequentially by 0.6 paisa to 35.6 paise per minute in Q3 December 2014. However, 18.4% quarterly jump in Mobile Data revenue, contributing 15.7% to service revenue, helped Idea improve its 'ARPM' at 46.3p in Q3 December 2014 (vs 45.9 paise in Q2 September 2014).
As the technology cycle shortens, the company on prudent basis reviewed and reduced the estimated useful life of core network equipments from present 10 to 9 years. Consequently, this quarter the depreciation charge has risen by Rs 262.50 crore.
On a standalone basis, the strong cash profit of Rs 2028.60 crore in Q3 December 2014 (year-on-year growth of 29.5%) has helped company reduce net debt to Rs 11089.10 crore. The net debt to annualised EBITDA ratio now stands at 1.12, lowest in the industry, providing company sufficient head room to participate in the forthcoming license renewal spectrum auction.
The mobile data subscriber base on 2G+3G platform has risen by 8.6 million in CY 2014 to 34.2 million. This quarter Idea held on its data rates (bended 2G+3G) - 'Average Realisation per MB' (ARMB) at 26.9 paise (vs 26.5 paise in Q2 September 2014). The blended Data ARPU (2G+3G) has improved by Rs 35 in CY 2014 to Rs 126 as 'Usages per Data Subscriber' has grown to 470 MB per user in Q3 December 2014 from 309 MB in Q3 December 2013. The 3G (Voice+Data) customers have grown steadily this quarter to 16.1 million but still represents only 10.7% of Idea's total subscriber base. Idea continued to expand its 3G footprint with incremental investment of 7,840 3G sites in CY 2014 taking the overall 3G sites count to 27,744.
As mobility market services expand, Indian Telecom business offers exciting growth opportunities in Mobile broadband & rural voice telephony. Brand Idea with growing consumer affinity, strong cash flows, expanding 2G & 3G network footprint and competitive spectrum profile, reaffirms its ability to overcome current short term uncertainties, emerge stronger and consolidate its market position to tap emerging telecom and mobile banking opportunities.
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