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Reliance Communications net profit surges to $355m
NEW DELHI - Reliance Communications, India's No. 2 mobile operator, reported a 23.8 per cent rise in quarterly profit, almost meeting expectations, on higher subscribers in the world's fastest-growing wireless market.
The carrier, whose customers are mainly on a CDMA network, is spending $6 billion in the year to March 2009, mostly to expand its fledgling GSM services nationwide to better compete with leading rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar.
Chairman Anil Ambani said in a statement the planned GSM launch was "on track" and that he expected "significant acceleration in earnings" from next year.
Reliance Communications, whose tie-up talks with South Africa's MTN to create a global top-10 telecoms firm failed earlier this month, said net profit rose to Rs15.12 billion ($355 million) for its fiscal first quarter ended June, from Rs12.21 billion reported in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue rose to Rs53.22 billion from Rs43.04 billion reported a year earlier.
Analysts expected a net profit of Rs15.16 billion on revenue of Rs57.61 billion for the firm, which added 5 million mobile users during the June quarter to have nearly 51 million users at end-June.
EBITDA margin, a key gauge of profitability, was little changed at 42.3 per cent from 42.2 per cent a year earlier.
Last week, larger rival Bharti Airtel reported a forecast-beating 34 percent rise in June quarter profit.
State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, which provides telecoms services in New Delhi and Mumbai, on Thursday posted a 15 per cent rise in quarterly net profit to Rs1.15 billion.
Cheaper call rates of as low as 1 U.S. cent a minute, handset prices starting at $15 and network expansion by operators to smaller cities and rural areas have fuelled a furious pace of subscriber addition for Indian mobile operators.
More than 8 million subscribers are signing up every month, taking the country's total mobile user base to about 287 million at the end of June, 55 per cent higher than a year earlier. Consultancy Gartner expects 737 million users by 2012.
Ahead of the results, shares in Reliance Communications, valued at about $24 billion, closed 0.5 per cent down at Rs500.05 in a Mumbai market that gained 0.5 per cent.
Reuters
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