Uninor operating loss narrows down to Rs 70 cr in second quarter

NEW DELHI: Uninor, the Indian arm of Norwegian telecom firm Telenor, has reported a drop in its second quarter loss from a year ago to Rs 70.3 crore (90 million Norwegian krone) on the back of strong subscriber additions and revenue growth.

The company had posted an operating loss of Rs 132.8 crore (170 million Norwegian krone) in the same quarter last year. The company follows a January-December financial calendar. For the quarter ended June, revenue stood at 1,362 million Norwegian krone, up 33.4 per cent from a year ago, Uninor said in a statement on Wednesday.

The carrier, which operates in six of India's 22 service areas, posted positive EBITDA on increased revenue and improved gross margin following mobile termination rate cut. "This quarter the company registered a positive EBITDA of Rs 18.8 crore," Uninor said.

Uninor added 1.3 million subscriptions during the second quarter. The subscription base was 22 per cent higher than the same quarter last year. The company said 26 per cent of its customers are active data users.

Uninor's ARPU in local currency fell by 12 per cent from a year ago to Rs 95.The decline was mainly due to lower voice consumption and the impact from reduced mobile termination rate, partly compensated by increased data usage.

The growth in subscriptions and the decline in ARPU resulted in a revenue growth in local currency of 9 per cent compared with the same quarter last year. Subscription and traffic revenues in local currency increased by 13 per cent. Uninor's capital expenditure increased to 253 million Norwegian krone from 130 million during the year-ago period.

The company said that in the second quarter capital, expenditure was mainly related to capacity expansion to cater to the increased traffic volumes. "We retain our focus on Internet for All, as well as operational efficiency as stated in our strategy. We have made significant investments in data networks," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and CEO of Telenor Group.