Vodafone Idea Limited, reported a net loss of ₹4,973.8 crore, the first since Vodafone Plc. merged its Indian operations with Idea Cellular in August.
Depreciation and amortisation stood at ₹3,005.9 crore, resulting in negative EBIT of ₹2,544.5 crore. Interest and financing cost came to ₹1,951.1 crore.
The loss was posted on revenues of ₹7,663.6 crore and EBITDA of ₹461.4 crore with EBITDA margin of 6%.
The merger of Vodafone India with Idea cellular was completed on August 31, 2018, accordingly the consolidated financials include Vodafone India figures from August 31, 2018. Hence, Q2 figures as reported above, are not comparable to earlier periods, said a company statement.
Its co-promoter Vodafone Plc. has reported a net loss of €7.8 billion for the half year ended September 30 as the company wrote down €3.5 billion on the disposal of Vodafone India and a similar amount for various impairments that also included Spain and Romania.
Commenting on the results, Balesh Sharma, CEO, Vodafone Idea limited, said “The merger of two large organisations with complementary strengths has opened multiple opportunities to draw synergies across the board. We have set on a strong course with meticulous pre-merger planning and rigorous post-merger execution. In just 75-days of operations, several milestones have been achieved, ahead of expected time line. We are thus well on track to deliver the synergies envisaged at the time of merger.”
“Customer migration to lower ARPU offerings, led to a 4.7% QoQ decline in ARPU to ₹88 for the quarter. This, coupled with the loss of 13 million customers during the period, resulted in a 7.1% decline in total revenue,” said the company statement.
The Indian joint venture said it planned to raise up to ₹25,000 crore (about $3.5 billion) in new equity capital.
The promoter shareholders, Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group, have indicated to the board that they would contribute up to ₹11,000 crore ($1.5 billion) and up to ₹7,250 crore ($1 billion) respectively as part of such a capital raising exercise.
The merger of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers has received approval from CCI and SEBI and is expected to close by around FY19 end and the company has an option to monetise its 11.15% stake in Indus.
“Several parties have indicated a potential interest in acquiring the company’s fibre network, consisting of over 156,000 Km of intra- and inter-city fibre routes. The company has decided to actively explore a potential sale of these assets in order to provide further balance sheet flexibility,” the statement added.
Vodafone Idea shares on the BSE closed up 1.84% at ₹41.45 on the BSE on Wednesday., valuing the company at Rs 36,208 crore.
