The Hindu Business Line : Idea Q3 net dips 7%

Mumbai, Jan. 22 Idea Cellular has reported a 7.2 per cent dip in its consolidated net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2008 at Rs 219.5 crore, against Rs 236.7 crore reported in the same quarter a year ago.

Mr Sanjeev Aga, Managing Director of Idea Cellular, said the company’s third quarter consolidated profits cannot be compared with the year-ago numbers due to the company’s investments in Spice Communications and Indus Towers.

In June 2008, Idea Cellular said that it would acquire 40.8 per cent stake in Spice Communications, for about Rs 2,176 crore at a price of Rs 77.30 per share. In addition to this, Idea will also pay Rs 544 crore to the Spice group as non-compete fee, taking the total deal size to about Rs 2,700 crore.

Indus Towers is an independent telecom tower company floated by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular.

“The consolidated profit after tax is depressed by Rs 36.7 crore on account of the consolidation of Idea’s 41.09 per cent shareholding in Spice Communications from October 16, 2008 and on account of Idea group’s 16 per cent shareholding in Indus Towers,” the Aditya Birla group company said in a press note here. However, total EBITDA was up 22.4 per cent, at Rs 697.4 crore (Rs 569.4 crore).

Revenues for the quarter were up by 59.6 per cent at Rs 2,731.1 crore (Rs 1,710.3 crore). The company also took a forex hit of Rs 10 crore in the quarter gone by. On a standalone basis, the company’s profit was up by 8.2 per cent at Rs 256.2 crore (Rs 236.7 crore)