Vodafone Idea Ltd. published its third quarterly results for the financial year 2021-22 on 21st January 2022. The results showed a steep increase in net loss at Rs.7,231 crores. This is a 59.5% year-on-year (YoY) jump in the net loss which was recorded at Rs 4,532 crores in Q3 FY21. It is a drop sequentially too – the loss had come in at Rs7,132 crores in the last quarter.
The revenue from operations also suffered the same fate as it fell 11% YoY to stand at Rs 9,717 crores (In Q3 FY21, the revenue was reported at Rs10,894 crores). This might be attributed to the fact that the company’s subscriber base declined to 24.72 crores compared to 25 crores in Q2 FY22.
On a sequential basis, however, the revenue increased 3.3% due to tariff hikes, resilient 4G subscriber base and tariff interventions from 25th November 2021. The 4G subscriber base saw a fresh addition of 8 lakh customers in the quarter under review taking the total base to 11.7 crores.
EBITDA grew 14.9% sequentially and amounted to Rs 1,620 compared to Rs.1,410 crore in Q2 FY22. The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) also showed growth on a sequential basis as it jumped 5.2% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to Rs 115 compared to Rs 109 in Q2 FY22.
In the balance sheet, the gross debt amounted to Rs1.98 lakh crores as on 31st December 2021. This comprised of Rs 1.11 lakh crore debt for deferred spectrum payment, Rs 64,620 crore for AGR liability and Rs 23,060 crores from financial institutions. Cash and cash equivalents amounted to Rs 1,500 crores and the net debt was Rs 1.97 lakh crore. Note that as of January 2022, Vodafone Idea converted a majority of their debt towards spectrum fees and AGR dues to equity for the Government!
When the markets closed on Friday, 21st January 2022, Vodafone Idea’s shares closed at Rs.11.90 per share after an intraday fall of 1.24%. Notably, the last dividend declaration was on 28th April 2016 when the company had made some profits and declared a final dividend of Rs.0.60 per share.
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