Vodafone Idea Q3 Loss Widens To Rs 7,231 Crore

Financially stressed telecom company Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) reported a consolidated loss of Rs 7,230.9 crore during the October-December 2021 quarter of the current fiscal.

The loss margin has widened as the company had recorded a loss of Rs 4,532.1 crore during the corresponding period of last year.

Consolidated revenue from operations declined by 10.8 per cent to Rs 9,717.3 crore from Rs 10,894.1 crore in the year-ago period.

"We are pleased to announce second consecutive quarter of revenue growth driven by several tariff interventions taken in the last few months. While the overall subscriber base has declined as a result of the tariff interventions, the 4G subscriber base remained resilient on the back of superior data and voice experience offered by Vi GIGAnet," VIL MD and CEO Ravinder Takkar said in a statement.

Its subscriber base declined to 24.72 crore from 26.98 crore in the same quarter a year ago because of tariff hikes by the company.

"In November 2021, we increased the prepaid tariffs across all price points including unlimited plans as well as combo vouchers, moving the entry level prepaid plan to Rs 99.

"Resultantly, ARPU improved to Rs 115, up 5.2 per cent on quarter on quarter versus Rs 109 in the second quarter of financial year 2022. The subscriber base declined to 247.2 million against 253.0 million in second quarter of the current fiscal, because of these tariff interventions," the statement said.

Despite tariff hikes, average revenue per user (ARPU) during the reported quarter declined by about 5 per cent compared to Rs 121 it recorded in the same quarter of 2020-21.

The company's cash and cash equivalents were at Rs 1,500 crore and net debt stood at Rs 1,97,480 crore.

The debt-ridden company has opted to pay interest of around Rs 16,000 crore through preferential shares to the government. This will result in the government holding 35.8 per cent stake in the company.