Reliance Industries telecom division Reliance Jio Infocomm saw a sequential profit growth of 3 percent at Rs 5,208 crore for the October to December 2023 quarter, according to the company’s financial results released on January 19. This is slightly higher than the CNBC-TV18 poll profit projection of ₹5,150 crore. The firm registered a profit of Rs 5,058 crore in the July to September 2023 quarter.
The telecom company’s revenue rose to Rs 25,368 crore for the third quarter of the financial year, as compared to Rs 24,750 crore in the preceding quarter. The revenue is largely in line with the poll estimate of Rs 25,360 crore.
Jio’s operational performance has improved as its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to Rs 13,277 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 12,953 crore in the last quarter. The EBITDA has come in a little lower than the poll forecast of Rs 13,450 crore.
The margin, meanwhile, was flat at 52.3 percent Jio’s subscribers’ data is yet to be released and it must be noted that analysts polled by CNBC-TV18 had suggested that the telco’s revenue growth would be driven by a 10 million subscriber addition and a moderate increase in average revenue per user (ARPU).
In the July to September quarter, the company had a total subscriber base of 459.7 million; the company had added 11.2 million subscribers (net), as against 9.2 million in the first quarter of the financial year. The ARPU had come in at Rs 181.70 in the September quarter, up from ₹180.50 reported in the April-June quarter.
The data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for October 2023 showed Jio added 3.1 million subscribers during the month. Following this, the CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts expects the firm will have expanded its subscriber base by 10 million during the third quarter of 2023-24.
Among the other factors, analysts expect the Street to track 5G rollout and adoption. As of the second quarter, Jio’s 5G data traffic accounted for more than 15 percent of overall data traffic. The rollout of Jio AirFibre and the hike in 4G prepaid tariff will also be key to watch, analysts said.