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Vodafone India posts 6% increase in revenue
Feb 10, 2012 (Mint - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Driven by an increase in customers, continued growth in voice minutes, and a nearly 50% jump in data revenue, Vodafone India Ltd posted 20% growth in organic revenue for the quarter ended 31 December, and a 6% rise in reported revenue.
India's third largest telecom service provider posted a revenue of GBP1.02 billion (nearly '8,000 crore) for the quarter compared with GBP963 million a year earlier.
The UK-based Vodafone Group Plc's service revenue, however, fell 2.3% to GBP11.61 billion for the quarter due to increasing economic pressure in Europe.
"Service revenue in India grew 20% (organically), driven by an increase in the customer base and 46.4% growth in data revenue," the telco said in a statement on Thursday.
Organic growth represents performance on a comparable basis, both in terms of mergers and acquisitions activity and movements in foreign exchange rates, while reported growth is based on amounts in pounds as determined under international financial reporting standards.
On Wednesday, India's largest telecom service provider, Bharti Airtel Ltd, reported that total revenue for its India and South Asia mobile services grew 11% in the quarter to '10,176 crore. Idea Cellular Ltd's stand-alone revenue rose 27% to '5,065 crore.
While Bharti drew criticism for its less than 1% increase in volumes during the quarter, attributed to a rise in tariffs, Vodafone India saw a 4.3% growth and Idea a 7.3% rise. "Volume" here refers to the total voice traffic carried on an operator's network and is generally measured in minutes.
Realizations per minute (RPM), essentially the average price per minute at which telcos sell their minutes, gives a clearer picture.
Bharti's RPM rose 3.5% in the quarter while Idea's RPM stayed unchanged despite all the operators raising tariffs marginally in the middle of last year. This is because Idea did not bring down the discounts it was offering in various markets. Vodafone reported a 1.7% increase in RPM.
"Whilst the market remains highly competitive, the effective rate per minute increased slightly compared to the second quarter following the penetration of recent price rises into the customer base," Vodafone said in its statement.
"The results are good. I wish Airtel had posted these results as well," said a Mumbai-based analyst at an international banking conglomerate. "There is not much data to go on as Vodafone publishes the key data every six months."
"We are continuing to make progress in the key strategic areas of data, enterprise and emerging markets," Vodafone Group chief executive Vittorio Colao said in the statement. "Despite the further deterioration of the southern European economic environment during the quarter, our broad geographic mix is delivering a resilient overall performance."
Vodafone made special mention of the Supreme Court verdict in the $2 billion tax case that the telco won against Indian tax authorities. It also mentioned the recent divestment of Essar's holdings in its Indian entity in favour of the Piramal group.
On 4 February, Piramal Healthcare Ltd agreed to buy a 5.5% stake in Vodafone India from ETHL Communications Holdings Ltd (an Essar company) for about '3,010 crore, taking its total holding in the telco to about 11%.
___ (c)2012 the Mint (New Delhi) Visit the Mint (New Delhi) at www.livemint.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
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