The deteriorating financial health of the telecom sector has become a cause for concern for the industry. The free off­er­­ings of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), which started operations in Sep­tember 2016, have sparked a fierce price war in the industry, forcing the incumbent operators to launch cheaper voice and data plans in order to retain their customer base. This hypercompetition has impacted the revenues and profitability of operators across the sector.

As a result, operators including Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have reported a decline in their net profits and total revenues during the quarter ended March 2017. RJIL too has witnessed a decline in its revenues and a substantial increase in its expenditure during this quarter, though it has achieved a subscriber base of around 108.9 million in a short span of time.

Meanwhile, falling operator revenues have meant a decline in investments for installing telecom towers. This has resulted in a decrease in profits for telecom tower company Bharti Infratel during the quarter ended March 2017.

tele.net takes a look at the financial results announced so far by some of the listed telecom companies…

Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel reported a significant decline of around 72 per cent in its year-on-year consolidated net profit for its India operations. Its net profit fell from Rs 13.19 billion during the quarter ended March 2016 to Rs 3.73 billion in the corresponding quarter in 2017. According to the operator, the decline is largely on account of the predatory pricing strategies of RJIL. Meanwhile, revenues dropped by 7 per cent, from Rs 183.28 billion to Rs 170.35 billion during the same period. Lower revenues resulted in a decrease of 13 per cent in the operator’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), from Rs 77.34 billion to Rs 66.98 billion. The EBITDA margin dec­reased 2.3 percentage points, from 41.4 per cent to 39.1 per cent.

The operator’s ARPU decreased by a significant 18.9 per cent, from Rs 194 during the quarter ended March 2016 to Rs 158 in the corresponding quarter in 2017. Voice ARPUs declined by 17.2 per cent, from Rs 138 to Rs 114 while data ARPUs decreased by 17.3 per cent, from Rs 196 to Rs 162. However, the total data usage on the operator’s network increased by 53.4 per cent, from 146,768 million MBs to 225,109 million MBs during the same period.

Meanwhile, Airtel turned profitable in Africa for the first time. The operator’s net profit from its Africa operations improved from a negative of Rs 3.38 billion during the quarter ended March 2016 to Rs 0.35 bi­ll­­ion in the corresponding quarter in 2017. Further, its total revenues in Africa increased by 2 per cent, from $872 million to $888 million, during the same period. Its EBITDA increased by 39 per cent, from $171 million to $238 million while the EBITDA margin increased from 19.6 per cent to 26.8 per cent during the same period.

For its South Asia operations, Airtel re­­ported a 78 per cent year-on-year dec­line in total revenues, from Rs 4.38 billion during the quarter ended March 2016 to Rs 0.97 billion during the corresponding quarter in 2017. Its EBITDA declined from Rs 0.28 billion to a negative of Rs 0.1 billion.

Idea Cellular

Idea Cellular reported a substantial dec­line in its year-on-year consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 2017. Its net profit fell from Rs 4.51 billion during the quarter ended March 2016 to a negative of Rs 3.27 billion during the corresponding quar­ter in 2017. For Idea Cellular, this was the second consecutive decline in its consolidated net profit on a quarterly basis. Earlier, it had recorded a loss of Rs 3.83 billion during the quarter ended December 2016. According to the operator, the wireless industry witnessed unprecedented disruption during the second half of 2016-17 owing to free voice and mobile data promotions by the new entrant in the sector. These promotional offers by the rival operator impacted Idea’s revenues.

The operator’s  revenues declined by 14.26 per cent from Rs 94.78 billion during the quarter ended March 2016 to Rs 81.26 billion during the corresponding quarter in 2017. Moreover, its EBITDA decreased by 34.12 per cent from Rs 33.34 billion to Rs 21.96 billion and its EBITDA margin declined from 35.2 per cent to 27 per cent.

The operator’s blended ARPU decreased from Rs 179 during the quarter ended March 2016 to Rs 142 during the corresponding quarter in 2017. Voice ARPUs declined from Rs 129 to Rs 107 while the blended mobile data ARPUs (including 2G, 3G and 4G services) declined from Rs 147 to Rs 110 during the reported period.

RJIL

RJIL reported an increase in its net loss during the six months ended March 2017. Its net loss rose from Rs 74.6 million during the six-month period ended March 2016 to Rs 225 million during the corresponding period in 2017. This increase in net loss can be attributed to a decline in its total income and an increase in its total expenditure. RJIL’s total income declined by 75 per cent from Rs 22.5 million during the six months ended March 2016 to Rs 5.4 million during the corresponding period in 2017. Meanwhile, its total ex­pen­diture increased from Rs 136.3 million to Rs 348.8 million during the same period. The operator’s depreciation and amortisation expenses increased by about 14 per cent from Rs 21.8 million to Rs 24.8 million during the period under consideration. Further, RJIL’s selling and distribution expenses increased significantly, from Rs 24.2 million to Rs 173.6 million. More­over, its operating and other expenses increased substantially, from Rs 65.5 million to Rs 111.1 million. However, the operator witnessed a 14 per cent decline in its finance costs from Rs 5.4 million to Rs 4.6 million. The operator’s debt-equity ratio declined from 0.89 to 0.67 during the same period.

Bharti Infratel

Bharti Infratel reported a 16 per cent decline in its net profit from Rs 7.18 billion during the quarter ended March 2016 to Rs 5.96 billion during the corresponding quarter in March 2017. This can be attributed to an increase in the company’s total expenditure from Rs 10.43 billion to Rs 11.32 billion during the same period. However, the company witnessed a substantial increase of 10.65 per cent in its revenues from Rs 31.81 billion during the quarter ended March 2016 to Rs 35.2 billion during the corresponding quarter in 2017. This led to an increase in the company’s EBITDA from Rs 14.68 billion to Rs 15.84 billion during the same period. However, the EBITDA margin of the company decreased from 46.2 per cent to 45 per cent.

Meanwhile, Bharti Infratel’s total number of towers increased from 88,808 during the quarter ended March 2016 to 90,646 during the corresponding quarter in March 2017. The company’s total number of co-locations also increased, from 195,035 to 210,606 during the same period. Further, the company’s sharing revenue per tower per month increased from Rs 76.6 billion during the quarter ended March 2016 to Rs 80.46 billion during the corresponding quarter in 2017.

Kuhu Singh