To focus more on data services in future: Idea's Kapania

Jan 27, 2014, 09.13 PM IST

Idea Cellular, the country's third largest telecom operator, reported 4.5 percent growth in net profit and 4.6 percent in revenues on sequential basis, missing analysts' expectations

Tags Idea Cellular, Himanshu Kapania, net profit , telecom operator, wireless broadband, technology expanding, data services

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Idea Cellular, the country's third largest telecom operator, reported 4.5 percent growth in net profit and 4.6 percent in revenues on sequential basis, missing analysts' expectations

Like this story, share it with millions of investors on M3

To focus more on data services in future: Idea's Kapania

Idea Cellular, the country's third largest telecom operator, reported 4.5 percent growth in net profit and 4.6 percent in revenues on sequential basis, missing analysts' expectations

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For companies like Idea, we have to expand from a present regional operations of 3G to pan-India. As time passes by & demand for capacity increases, we have to roll out latest technology.

Himanshu Kapania

Idea Cellular

Idea Cellular , which reported its third quarter numbers today is focusing on investing more in data services going forward, said MD, Himanshu Kapania in an interview to CNBC-TV18's Kritika Saxena.

Country's third largest telecom operator, Idea, reported 4.5 percent growth in net profit and 4.6 percent in revenues on sequential basis, missing analysts' expectations.

Quarter-on-quarter consolidated net profit for the company increased to Rs 467.7 crore (from Rs 447.6 crore) on revenues of Rs 6,613 crore (from Rs 6,323.3 crore) in the quarter ended December 2013. Revenues included 16 percent contribution from Indus Towers.

Kapania said: "As our belief is at this point of time, there is a huge amount of work mobile operators have to do, to grow this business. Currently out of the overall industry which is at the size of Rs 1,65,000 crores not more then 9 to 10% of the revenue comes from wireless broadband. Therefore, significant investments need to be done to expand newer services and to offer the latest technology expanding."

"For companies like Idea, we have to expand from a present regional operations of 3G to pan-India. We also have to make sure that as time passes by and demand for capacity increases, we have to roll out latest technology," he added.

Idea Cellular stock price

On January 27, 2014, Idea Cellular closed at Rs 145.30, down Rs 7.2, or 4.72 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 188.35 and the 52-week low was Rs 101.10.

The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 3.70 per share as per the quarter ended September 2013. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 39.27. The latest book value of the company is Rs 42.26 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 3.44.

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