The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

    Airtel India Q2 mobile revenue rises 0.8% QoQ; AGR decision to weigh

    Synopsis

    Airtel's revenue from India mobile services grew 7.4% on year to Rs 10,812 crore.

    ET Bureau
    New Delhi: Bharti Airtel deferred the release of its audited second-quarter results to November 14 to get “more clarity” on the implications of a Supreme Court order that upheld the definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) for telcos to include their non-core income streams.

    However, the telco released unaudited operational highlights for the India business late Tuesday, as “reviewed” by the board, which showed signs of continued recovery in core mobile services during the July-September quarter.

    Revenue from India mobile services grew 7.4% on year and 0.8% on quarter to Rs 10,812 crore as Airtel added 2.6 million subscribers and data usage continued to grow. The net addition of customers came after four straight quarters of losing users.

    Monthly subscriber churn – the percentage of users leaving the network – dropped to 2.1% from 2.6% in the previous quarter, while average data usage per customer jumped almost 10% on quarter and over 42% on year to 13.13 GB, while voice usage per customer fell 4.5% on quarter but rose 24% on year.

    Quarterly average revenue per user fell 1% on quarter to Rs 128, which was over 28% higher on year.

    Airtel’s Indian mobile services revenue came in below Reliance Jio’s Rs 12,354 crore, but average data usage and ARPU were higher that its rival’s 11.7 GB and Rs 120, respectively. The telco did not release its profit & loss statement and balance sheet on Tuesday.

    Bharti Airtel shares fell 3.41% to Rs 359.95 at the close on the BSE. The operational numbers were release after market hours.

    Brokerage Kotak said Airtel’s September quarter numbers reflected “a solid revenue performance” in India wireless and India DTH (businesses), along with sustained mobile broadband network expansion in India.

    “Barring a cost shocker in India wireless, we believe (Airtel’s) Ebitda print should be quite decent and ahead of expectations... we continue to like what we see and pricing stability and network investments have started driving some healthy sequential trends in financials as well as operating metrics,” Kotak said in a note to clients.

    The Sunil Mittal-led company, along with Vodafone Idea, was the worst hit by last week’s apex court order, which accepted the government’s definition of AGR for telcos, which includes non-core items, leaving telcos facing over Rs 1.3 lakh crore in pending license fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) dues, including penalties and interest.

    Airtel alone faces additional government dues of almost Rs 41,507 crore, with nearly Rs22,000 crore in license fees, penalty and interest alone, and has three months to pay up. Licence fees and SUC are calculated as a percentage of AGR.

    In a stock exchange filing Tuesday, the company said that its management had recommended to the board of directors that approval of the audited financial results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2019, be postponed from October 29 because “more clarity is needed on the AGR matter arising out of recent judgement of the Supreme Court.”

    The board accepted the proposal.

    Airtel will approach the Department of Telecommunications to seek clarity on the total amounts involved and request its support to deal with this “adverse” outcome, the telco added.

    Government sources told ET that after the SC ruling, demands for dues will be sent out. While the authorities are trying to soften the financial blow, it is a tightrope walk for them as they want to avoid any future vigilance scrutiny.



    ( Originally published on Oct 29, 2019 )
    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more


    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more
    The Economic Times

    Stories you might be interested in