Idea's profit jumps 69% to Rs756 crore in September quarter, beats estimates - Livemint

On Monday, Idea shares rose 4.61% to Rs160.15 on BSE, while the exchange’s benchmark Sensex gained 1.23% to 26,429.85 points.

Mumbai: Idea Cellular Ltd , India’s third-largest mobile phone services provider by revenue and market share, beat analysts’ profit and sales estimates for the September quarter, led by growth in revenue from mobile data and value-added services.

Net profit rose 69% to Rs.756 crore during the three months ended 30 September from Rs.447 crore a year ago, the Aditya Birla Group company said on Monday. Revenue rose 20% to Rs.7,569 crore.

A Bloomberg poll of 22 analysts had pegged consolidated net profit at Rs.673.1 crore and net sales at Rs.7,439.7 crore.

In the September quarter, Idea Cellular’s average revenue per user (Arpu) increased to Rs.176 from Rs.164 in the year ago.

The telecom service provider’s average realization per minute, too was higher at 45.9 paise in the September, compared with 45.1 paise in the previous quarter.

During the quarter, the company carried 162.5 billion minutes on its network.

In April, the company said it will spend Rs.3,500 crore in the 2015 fiscal year. However, analysts do not expect the company to increase its capital expenditure on 3G (third generation) services.

According to a 26 September report by Elara Capital, the Idea management has no plans to increase 3G capital expenditure because of its weak smartphone ecosystem.

“Thus, management will map capex intensity to data growth expectation. It further says there is very little possibility of increasing existing capex guidance of Rs.3,500 crore per year, due to 35-40% 3G coverage with less than 20% capacity utilization,” the report added.

The results were declared after market hours.

On Monday, Idea shares rose 4.61% to Rs.160.15 on BSE, while the exchange’s benchmark Sensex gained 1.23% to 26,429.85 points. In the September quarter, the Idea stock rose 25.4% while the Sensex increased 4.8%.