MUMBAI: Idea cellular has witnessed yet another quarter of loss as it reported a net loss of Rs962 crore for the fourth quarter of 2017-18 being the sixth in a row. The performance of the company, which had come with big ideas, has been negatively affected by the slashed interconnect usage charges (IUC) and international termination rates, and not to mention the ongoing rate wars among the Indian telcos ever since the entry of Reliance Jio two years ago.
The full-year loss posted by the company was Rs4188 crore whereas the loss for the quarter ending December 31, 2017 was Rs1285 crore and that of the corresponding fourth quarter in the previous year was Rs328 crore.
Plan to issue NCDs
Meanwhile the company said its board has approved issuance of redeemable non-convertible debentures on public/private placement basis for the operations of the company, subject to the approval of the shareholders at the ensuing annual general meeting (AGM).
While the revenue for the third largest telco slumped nearly 20.5 per cent year on year, sequentially, the drop was nearly 5.7 per cent to Rs6137.3 crore for the last quarter, the company said in a statement today.
The fourth quarter ended for the company with 194.5 million users, having added six million users on a net basis.
“The super aggressive price plans including the deep discounted unlimited voice bundled data plans, offered by most of the incumbent operators to retain existing subscribers against abysmally low priced plans offered by new 4G operator, exploded the voice and data volume growth multi-folds,” said Idea Cellular in its statement.
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