Tata Communications Q4 loss narrows to Rs 5 crore

MUMBAI: Tata Communications today said it has substantially lowered its net loss to Rs 5.2 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, helped by increased operational efficiency and Rs 183 crore gain from asset sale. Its net loss was Rs 260.9 crore in the same period during the last financial year.

"We have been working on streamlining operations, cost management, which is visible in the results and we expect a strong year ahead of us. During the quarter, we also sold of an asset, which resulted in an exceptional item of Rs 183 crore, which has further helped improve numbers," Tata Communications MD and Group CEO Vinod Kumar told reporters on a conference call.

Revenue from operations in Q4 grew 11.08 per cent to Rs 4,400.5 crore, from Rs 3,961.3 crore in January-March 2012. "We have outpaced our peers and gained market share in almost every market segment and geography that we operate in. This is impressive given the economic and industry conditions that we operated under," Kumar said.

The company has continued to invest in sales and marketing as well as services innovation, which will start yielding results in the year ahead, he said. During the quarter, Tata Comm registered an actuarial loss of Rs 41 crore on Canada pension fund, along with previous period regulatory payments in the joint venture (UTL Nepal) of Rs 27 crore.

"An unusual magnitude of cable cuts encountered during the quarter had an impact of about Rs 18 crore during the period (under review," he said. For entire 2012-13 fiscal, the company's net loss narrowed to Rs 623.3 crore, while revenue from operations grew 21.25 per cent to Rs 17,213 crore.
On capex, Kumar said the firm had invested about Rs 30 crore in FY13 and similar investment will be made in FY14. It made an incremental investment of Rs 45-50 crore in branding initiatives during the quarter, he said.

The company's core business revenue stood at Rs 15,318.1 crore in FY13, up 23 per cent from Rs 12,458 crore in FY12. The total voice minutes carried in Q4 FY13 advanced to 15.4 billion from 15.2 billion minutes in Q4 FY12. For FY13, it increased to 62 billion minutes (from 55 billion minutes in FY12).

Global Data Services (GDS) revenue increased eight per cent at Rs 1,746.3 crore in the fourth quarter of 2012-13 from Rs 1,612.6 crore in the same period last year, helped by improved sales traction and increased pipeline activity. It grew 20 per cent at Rs 6,753.4 crore in FY13 from Rs 5,646.2 crore in the previous fiscal.

The start-up business, comprising primarily of Neotel, posted three per cent growth in revenues at Rs 466 crore in Q4 from Rs 452.2 crore in the year-ago period. For the fiscal ended March 2013, the revenue improved by nine per cent to Rs 1,894.8 crore from Rs 1,738.1 crore in FY12.

Earlier this month, Tata Communications announced its intention to delist from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and terminate its American Depositary Receipt (ADR) programme due to low trading volumes.

The company (formerly VSNL) is a leading global provider of telecommunications solutions serving the voice, data and next-generation service needs of carriers, enterprises and consumers across the world.