With the quarterly results being recently released, how has the company performed over the past one year in terms of revenue growth?
Uninor has aimed to take around 15 per cent of market share in terms of customers and revenues. And we have been able to do that over the past year.
Last quarter, we reported a revenue growth of 22 per cent compared to the quarter ended June 2011, and subscriptions by 14 per cent. We continue to maintain our earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and ammortisation (EBITDA) break even target of 2013.
According to the financials release, the company is believed to be on a track towards becoming an ultra low cost operator. How does the company plan to do so?
First, by remaining extremely focused on what our proposition to the customers will be. Uninor is only in the pre-paid segment, and that?s where we will be in the immediate future. We will also not offer highly complex and high-end services like 3G and advanced value added services (VAS). Instead, we will aim to be the most affordable mobile service for mass market needs.
If a customer uses the phone for calls, SMS, basic internet and music, Uninor must be the number one choice.
We have also worked hard on our sales and distribution strategy, to make it much more targeted and incentives much more result oriented.
On operational costs too, we have been able to reduce our energy consumption significantly, through partnerships with our equipment and tower partners. This will continue to be a major focus in the time to come.
Uninor added the highest number of GSM users for the month of September, this year. What are your comments about the same?
With better distribution spread and availability of number series, we were able to further improve our performance in September over July and August. We hope to sustain our subscriber and revenue growth in the months to come.
What are the company’s short and long term targets?
We have very simple targets. These are long term, but of course, we measure our performance every single day to ensure we are in the right direction to meet these targets. Our targets are to achieve EBITDA break even in 2013 and cash flow break even within two years of that.
What level of investment has been planned in the next two to three years?
We had envisaged a peak funding of around Rs 155 billion. This has not changed. The Telenor Group has already invested Rs 61.30 billion through equity and we have also taken up short term loans of around Rs 50 billion. A long-term funding solution is now being taken through a rights issue, through which, the shareholders will be invited to invest further equity into the company.
What is the biggest challenge currently facing the company?
We are awaiting further clarity on issues such as spectrum allocation. We are still missing start-up spectrum in Delhi where we are eager to launch our commercial services and bring new competition to the market. We are also awaiting spectrum in many districts in four other circles.
What is the future roadmap for Uninor?
Our financial targets are very clear and have not changed since the day we launched. Uninor aims to achieve EBITDA breakeven by 2013 and cash flow breakeven within two years after that. We will continue to strengthen our services in the circles already commercially launched and gradually make commercial launches in remaining circles too. Overall, Uninor will continue to position itself as the affordable service for the mass market and would like to be best in basic services, best in mass market distribution and an ultra cost efficient operator.
