Vodafone Idea’s losses for the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal widened by 7.4 per cent year-on-year to ₹7,840 crore. The telco had reported a loss of ₹7,296.7 crore for the same quarter last year.
Reporting its financial results on Monday, the revenue from operations for the firm rose by 2.3 per cent year on year to ₹10,655 crore from ₹10,410 crore in Q1FY23.
As of June 30, 2023, the net worth of the operator was at a negative ₹82,196 crore, while net working capital was ₹21,399.9 crore. Therefore, it is not surprising that the telco is yet to launch 5G services, even as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, complete minimum rollout obligations ahead of the August 16 deadline.
- Also read: Vodafone-Idea’s subscriber base continues to decline for 14th consecutive month in May: TRAI report
ARPU rises
Average revenue per user for the telco rose by 8.5 per cent to ₹139. However, total subscriber base continues to decline – as of June 30, 2023, Vi has 221.4 million subscribers. The telco has lost 8 per cent of its subscriber base in a span of one year.
The company’s total debt stands at ₹2.1 lakh, an amount of ₹3,589.6 crore has been converted from non-current borrowings to current maturities of long-term debt for not meeting certain covenant clauses. Total debt payable by 30 June 2024, stands at ₹6,826.6 crore.
The firm reiterated that its ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on its ability to raise funds.
“The 4G subscriber base continued to grow for the eighth consecutive quarter and stood at 122.9 million as on June 30, 2023 vs 122.6 million in Q4FY23. However, the overall subscriber base declined to 221.4 million vs 225.9 million in Q4FY23. ARPU improved to ₹139, up 2.9 per cent QoQ vs ₹135 in Q4FY23 primarily aided by migration of subscribers to higher ARPU plans. We continue to see high data usage per broadband customer at ~15.7 GB/month with the total data traffic for the quarter witnessing QoQ growth of 3.5 per cent,” the company stated in its press release.
Published on August 14, 2023
