Reliance Communications reports 78 percent jump in net profit

NEW DELHI - Telecom services major Reliance Communications (RCom), part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), Saturday reported a 78 percent rise in its net profits for the second quarter ended Sep 30 at Rs.446 crore ($99 million) over the previous sequential quarter.

“The net profit would have been 165 percent higher at Rs.1,181 crore, but for mark-to-market gain of Rs.735 crore, used to set off earlier notional foreign exchange losses,” the company said in a regulatory filing.

The revenue of the company for the quarter under review stood at Rs.5,118 crore ($1.139 billion), up 0.2 percent sequentially, while earning before interest, tax, depreciation and ammortisation (EBITDA) increased 1.7 percent to Rs.1,660 crore ($369 million).

The company’s customer base also increased 36.3 percent in the quarter to 117 million, compared to 86 million in the like period of previous fiscal, making it among the top three telecom services in India in terms of subscriber base.

“The company also ranks among the top four telecom service providers in the world by the number of customers in a single country,” the statement issued by Reliance Communications added.

The minutes of usage went up by 12 percent to 94.6 billion during the July-September quarter from 84.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2009-10.

Margins from the enterprise and global communications segments showed a steady growth, performance, representing 35 percent of the total EBITDA.

During the quarter, the company entered into the first-of-its kind multi-faceted business partnership with leading mobile handset manufacturer Nokia to offer an array of unmatched and innovative mobile, data and services offerings.

It also signed an exclusive strategic partnership with Universal Music to offer music-related services and content across all platforms of the mobile operator including Voice, Web and WAP.