Healthy subscriber growth and tariff hikes in the December quarter rubbed off on revenues, which gained 27 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 6 per cent sequentially. The company added 17.5 million customers in the March quarter taking the total customer base to 387.5 million. This was 26 per cent higher than the year ago quarter.
In its result preview, Axis Capital noted subscriber addition remained strong in January and February, though it moderated towards March end because of Covid-19 impact.
Revenue uptick was also aided by a 40 per cent price hike taken in the December quarter. As a result, average revenue per user (ARPU) went up by 1.7 per cent sequentially to Rs 130.6.
The full impact of the hike is expected to accrue in the June quarter as a majority of subscribers are on long-tenure plans. ARPU, however, came in below analyst estimates of around the Rs 135 mark. Deepak Jasani of HDFC Securities in a post-results note said lower-than-estimated ARPU impacted top line.
Top line growth helped the firm post a 43 per cent jump in operating profit to Rs 6,201 crore. Operating profit margins, too, improved 485 basis points YoY and 170 basis points QoQ to 41.8 per cent.
Fall in access charges by 20 per cent YoY helped in improving profitability.
For the full year (FY20), the company reported a 64.5 per cent growth in PBT to Rs 7,495 crore and an 87 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 5,562 crore. Revenues for the year were up 33 per cent to Rs 54,316 crore.
Commenting on the results, RIL Chairman
Mukesh Ambani said on Thursday: “We are glad that we have made connectivity and operations easier for our customers in these difficult times. Every Jio employee is trained to think Customer First and that has resulted in overwhelming customer response as we are serving close to 400 million Indians.”
Jio, which announced a 9.9 per cent stake sale to
Facebook last week, also unveiled a plan to launch a nationwide video platform called JioMeet. The firm said it had received investor interest in Jio Platforms from other strategic and financial investors and could announce a similar-sized investment in the coming months.