Uninor Posts Rs 1,531-Crore Net in March Quarter on One-Time Licence Fee Adjustment

Uninor, the Indian arm of Norwegian telecom firm Telenor, on Wednesday reported an operating profit of about Rs 1,531 crore for the January-March quarter beacause of a one-time accounting adjustment of Rs 1,660 crore related to licence fees.

Without that, Uninor posted an operating loss of Rs 81.8 crore for the quarter as against Rs 164.7 crore operating loss in the same period a year ago.

"We got one time offset of Rs 16.6 billion (Rs 1,660 crore) to be adjusted against future payments which is reflecting in our books. We have improved our performance though we are not EBIDTA positive due to the fresh investments this year following break-even in 2013," Uninor's nominated CEO, Morten Karlsen Sorby, said while announcing the earnings.

"Our operating loss excluding one-time offset improved by about 49 per cent at Rs 81.8 crore compared to last year," Mr Sorby added.

The Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom decided in October 2012 to adjust the earlier payment made by companies whose licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court on February 2, and have no criminal proceedings pending against them in the 2G case.

Uninor's 22 earlier licences were among the 122 cancelled by the apex court in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

The adjustment was made in the final price that companies have to pay for spectrum they have won in auction held in November 2012.

Telenor participated in November 2012 spectrum auction through new entity Telewings Communications and won radio-waves in six circles - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP East and UP West for Rs 4,018.28 crore.

Uninor reported an increase of about 44 per cent in its revenue of Rs 930.6 crore during the reported quarter, from Rs 645.1 crore in the year-ago period.

"Our Indian operation reported an organic revenue growth of 44 per cent in the quarter, gaining significant market share. We also launched a new Internet strategy in India, focusing on affordable and service-based Internet offers," Telenor president and CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas said.

Telenor group added 6 million new subscribers during the quarter most of which were added by its South Asian subsidiaries including Uninor.

"We added 6 million new mobile subscribers in the first quarter of 2014, the company's best customer surge in two years. This growth was mainly driven by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh," Mr Baksaas said.

Mr Sorby said that achieving the target for the first round of investments by achieving break-even last year, the company has now made a fresh investment of Rs 500 crore towards a 30 per cent expansion of the network and retail footprint.

The company is expanding the network coverage utilising 5,000 base stations from closed down circles and by end of first quarter, 1,036 new base stations were deployed in its operating service areas.

Uninor has set a target to double its internet revenues and percentage of Internet users on the subscriber base within this year.

The company added 25 lakh subscribers during the quarter in 6 of the 22 circles where it operates, taking its total subscriber base to over 3 crore at the end of March.

Its average revenue per user increased 13 per cent during the quarter to Rs 106.