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Vodafone Idea (Vi) on Thursday reported a 15.2 per cent higher consolidated net loss of Rs 8,746 crore in the second quarter (July-September) of the financial year (FY24) on a year-on-year (YoY) basis as a result of increasing expenses. Net loss widened from Rs 7,592 crore registered in the corresponding quarter of FY23.
On a sequential basis, the telco’s net loss widened by 11.6 per cent as a result of the continuing increase in finance cost which reached Rs 6,534 crore, and sluggish rise in operational revenue.
Gross revenue in the latest quarter stood at Rs 10,716 crore, up 0.95 per cent annually. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) rose to Rs 4,282 crore, up 4.5 per cent from Rs 4,097 crore in Q2FY23.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter rose to Rs 142 on a sequential basis, up from Rs 139 in the preceding quarter. The company said this was primarily aided by migration of subscribers to higher ARPU plans. Case in point, Vi’s 4G subscriber base continued to grow for the ninth consecutive quarter and stood at 124.7 million customers, up from 122.6 million in the preceding quarter.
However, the company continued to lose customers to Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, ending the quarter with 1.6 million fewer subscribers. Vi had a total of 219.8 million customers at the end of September, down sharply from 234.4 million at the end of September, 2022.
“We remain focused on our execution to compete in the market. We remain engaged with our lenders for further debt fund raising as well as with other parties for equity and equity linked fund raising, to make required investments for network expansion, including 5G rollout,” said Akshaya Moondra, chief executive officer, Vodafone Idea said.
The total gross debt (excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due) stood at Rs 2.1 trillion at the end of Q2, including deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1.35 trillion and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liability of more than Rs 68,000 crore that are due to the government.
The company reported sustained high data usage per broadband customer at 15.8 GB/month with the total data traffic for the quarter witnessing a sequential growth of 2 per cent. The overall broadband site count stood at 440,467 at the end of Q2, down by around 3,761 sites, the company said.
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