Reliance Industries’ telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm saw its net profit rise 11% year-on-year to ₹5,337 crore for the January to March 2024 quarter, the firm’s financial results released on April 22 showed. This beats the CNBC-TV18 poll projection of ₹5,268 crore.
Jio’s revenue for the March 2024 quarter came in at ₹25,959 crore, up 11% YoY from ₹23,394 crore. In the preceding October to December 2023 quarter, the revenue stood at ₹23,394 crore. The quarter’s revenue has come in slightly higher than the poll expectation of ₹25,900 crore.
The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation or EBITDA rose 11% YoY to ₹13,612 crore. This compares to analysts’ forecast of ₹13,605 crore. The telco’s margin at 52.4% for the quarter was marginally lower than the poll projection of 52.5%.
Analysts polled by CNBC-TV18 expected it to be a steady quarter while the Street awaits announcements on tariff hikes and Jio IPO plans. The average revenue per user (ARPU), analysts have said, is likely to remain unchanged at ₹181.7 whereas new subscriber additions would be close to 11 million.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data shows that the company added 4.17 million subscribers in January and 3.59 million in February.
Following the Q4 results, Naveen Kulkarni, CIO, Axis Securities PMS said, he doesn’t see any major positive or negative surprise at this juncture in Jio results. “ARPU probably would be flattish for this quarter or would have increased marginally, but nothing significant here. Rest of course EBITDA and earnings numbers look largely in line with expectations. So this is an inline quarter for the company, but overall it is continuing to inch up on a consistent basis.”
Market expert Prakash Diwan also said that “no major fireworks” were expected from Reliance Jio earnings this quarter given there was no major change in strategy in terms of pricing or new subscriber additions. “The price hike is on the cards, but we don’t know when, whether it is June or July and who initiates that. Jio will probably follow once Bharti announces a price hike and hence the ARPUs could start looking slightly healthier,” he said.
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