Idea Q4 net profit at Rs 301 crore, up 35 percent

Idea, part of the Aditya Birla conglomerate consolidated net profit rose to Rs 308 crore in its fourth quarter, 2013 showing a growth of 35 percent.

The company's consolidated profit for FY 2013 stood at 1,011 crore up from Rs 723 crore in FY 2012. Idea's revenue for the FY 2013 stood at Rs 22,458 crore up from Rs 19,541 crore in FY 2012.

The high revenue growth for Idea is led by sharp expansion of voice minutes at the rate of 8.5 percent to 143.4 billion, on sequential quarterly basis, indicating consumer demand for mobile telephony is robust.

The VLR growth is back with company clocking 8.3 million incremental quarterly growth and delivering over 40 percent of industry incremental VLR in first 11 months of FY13 (as per TRAI Feb'13 report). Idea now serves 121.6 million quality customers.

Contrary to expectations, the ARPM (Average Realised Rate per Minute) was nearly flat at 41.2p against 41.1p in Q3, FY13. While the challenges on voice ARPM continue, the company improved ‘Non Voice Revenue' to 15.2 percent led by data growth.

The Q4 FY13 has the highest data adoption by Idea customers' with 4.5 million sequential quarter addition, as the EoP base of data users grew to 26.2 million, now contributing 6.6 percent to service revenue. The data volume expanded by 13.8 percent to 11.4 billion MB and data realised rate improved by 9.5 percent to 33.9p per MB in Q4FY13.

The active 3G subscriber base for the company stands at 5.1 million, helping overall 2G+3G data revenue growth on sequential quarterly basis by 24.6 percent and data ARPU reaching to Rs 55.

The company generated healthy cash profit of Rs 4,697 crore FY 2013, a growth of 30.2 percent over FY 2012.

After 16 years of start of operations, the board of Idea has recommended its maiden dividend of 3 percent with an overall payout of Rs 116.3 core (including dividend distribution tax).

Idea continues to strengthen its competitive standing by investing in long term value creators - launched 2,432 GSM sites and 1,595 3G sites, expanded optical fibre network to 74,000 km and strengthened its presence in NLD, ILD, ISP, Data Services and Smartphone Device business.

Idea is the biggest net gainer nationally in the Mobile Number Portability program, a strong indicator of the popular appeal of Idea mobile services.

Idea is one of the few companies in the world, which is able to run high quality telecom services at the world's lowest price points and yet deliver stable Cash Profits. The improving capacity utilization, increasing brand popularity and quality of consumer service with a strong Balance Sheet underscores Idea's ability to benefit from long term sector opportunities.