Tata Communications Posts Loss of Rs 21.38 Crore in Q1

New Delhi: Tata Communications on Monday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 21.38 crore for the first quarter of financial year 2014-15.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 94.52 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal year, it said in a filing to the BSE.

Total income from operations, however, rose 13.64 per cent to Rs 5,111.72 crore for the quarter under review as compared to Rs 4,497.98 crore in the same period last year.

Tata Communications said revenue from core business operations improved 12 per cent to Rs 4,518.6 crore from Rs 4,018.8 crore a year ago.

It said data services continue to be the primary growth driver because of an uptake in demand from global enterprise customers for network and data center services.

"The improvement in global demand, our comprehensive data services portfolio and an emphasis on operational excellence holds us in good stead," Tata Communications managing director and CEO Vinod Kumar said.

The start-up business, comprising primarily of Neotel, posted a 24 per cent increase in revenues at Rs 593.1 crore as compared to Rs 479.1 crore in the first quarter of FY14.

The company said startup business Ebitda increased 23 per cent to Rs 141.5 crore in Q1 FY15 as compared to Rs 115.4 crore last year.

"Our Q1 results have set a good momentum for the year ahead and we are confident that we will be able to sustain this trend in the coming quarters," Tata Communications CFO Sanjay Baweja said.

"The business continues to benefit from improved asset utilization, greater leverage on costs and uptrend in our newer services."