Airtel on its way to report first quarterly loss in 15 years
Airtel‘s steady falling revenues because of an intense price war in the business industry has made it troublesome for the firm to cope up. However, Airtel is putting in its all efforts to give a battle in the neck and neck competition. The changing dynamics in telecom sector because of the entry of Mukesh Ambani claimed Reliance Jio might be led to the first quarterly loss of Sunil Mittal’s firm in 15 years.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel is probably going to report subdued financial results for the March quarter on Tuesday. There are expectations that quieted ARPU (average revenue per user) by virtue of reestablishing competition from Reliance Jio will affect its India revenue.
Yet, given the present situation, specialists believe that Bharti Airtel after reporting 39.3 percent drop in consolidated net profit for the second from last quarter of the FY18, it could end up posting a loss in the March quarter, a first in 60 quarters (or 15 years) on falling revenue and increasing expenses. The last time the firm reported a loss was in the December 2002 quarter, when the figure came in at a negative Rs 70.70 million.
For Q3, Airtel had posted the net profit of Rs 306 crore for the second from last quarter of 2017-18 compared to Rs 504 crore posted during the corresponding period in 2016-17.The aggregate revenue of the company remained at Rs 20,319 crore for the second from last quarter of 2017-18 compared to Rs 23,336 crore posted during the second from last quarter of 2016-17. It was a drop of 12.9 percent.
Meanwhile, for Reliance Jio the picture is as yet blushing and will stay like this at least for near future, specialists say. The Ambani’s firm had posted its first-ever net profit of Rs 504 crore for the three months frame finished December 2017, the second quarter of business operations. The company had acquired a loss of Rs 271 crore in the September quarter.
The income from operations came in at Rs 6,879 crore, 11.9 percent development over the past quarter. The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) at Rs 2,628 crore – was 82.1 percent more than the consecutive quarter. The operating profit margin enhanced quarter-over-quarter to 38.2 percent. Jio’s subscriber base as on December 31, 2017, remained at 160.1 million.
Experts said Airtel’s home broadband segment is as of now feeling the effect of Jio’s commercial launch while DTH business took a hit from an expansion in content cost during the final quarter.
The stock traded 0.64 per cent up at Rs 403.30 at around 9.50 am.
