| Anil Ambani CHAIRMAN Reliance Communications Ltd., India’s second-largest mobile services firm on way to be Global number one , said on Monday quarterly profit more than doubled, beating forecasts, on higher usage in the world’s fastest-growing mobile market.
Reliance Com , which gets more than 65 percent of its revenue from wireless subscribers, said it plans to spend over 100 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) in the current fiscal year that began on April 1 to expand its telecoms infrastructure.
The firm, which had more than 28 million users at end-March, said net profit for the quarter grew 154 percent to 10.24 billion rupees, beating a Reuters survey of nine brokerages which forecast on average 9.02 billion.
The company said it would take a decision in the next six months on “unlocking value” in its Reliance Telecom Infrastructure unit, and a potential listing of undersea cable unit Flag Telecom.
“We have a number of options in front of us. Listing is one of those options,” Chairman Anil Ambani told reporters at a news conference.
Strategic partnerships or private equity investment in these two units were also being considered, Ambani said.
He added the firm would aim to sustain its expansion in operating margins, which grew to 40 percent in 2006/07 from 24 percent a year earlier.
“We have seen margin expansion across the board … Our objective is for sustainability.”
Revenue for the quarter rose almost 33 percent to 39.37 billion rupees, but fell short of market estimates of 40.86 billion.
Larger rival Bharti Airtel Ltd. last week reported its quarterly profit almost doubled to 13.53 billion rupees.
Ambani said the company would also decide in the next two months on outsourcing its network and information technology services to enhance the quality of service.
“We are at a negotiating stage with all the global dealers,” he said, adding that the deal value would be “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
India has 12 telecoms firms which offer fixed-line and mobile services on GSM and CDMA platforms. In February, Vodafone bought a controlling stake in unlisted Hutchison Essar, India’s fourth-largest cellular operator.
“I don’t see Hutch going away and Vodafone coming in its shoes should not really make a very big impact on the telecoms sector,” Ambani said, when asked about how the company would tackle competition from Vodafone.
Shares in Reliance Communications rose 3.7 percent to 477.10 rupees in a Mumbai market that closed 0.26 percent down.
The shares fell 10.9 percent in the January-March quarter, pressured in part by a failed bid for Huchison Essar, compared with a 5.2 percent drop in the benchmark index.
Source Reuters
Universal News
Suggestions
Tiger WE love you and ask of you tokeep roaring loudly for BHARAT
Prince Mohan
http;//currentnewsaffairs.com
Tags:Anil Ambani CHAIRMAN Reliance Communications Ltd Dhiru Bhai Ambani EDUCATION ENTREPRENEURS FORTUNES INDIA INTERNATIONAL NEWS Internet MONEY ONLINE PATENT RIGHTS PETROL PHILOSOPHY positive thinking mind POWER POLITICS PRINCE MOHAN REUTERS SCIENCE SCIENTISTS SUCCESS WEALTH WORLD AFFAIRS |
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 5:13 pm and is filed under CURRENT NEWS, FORTUNES, POWER POLITICS, INTERNET, ONLINE, MONEY, WEALTH, SUCCESS, WORLD AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL NEWS, INDIA, PATENT RIGHTS, SCIENCE, SCIENTISTS, PHILOSOPHY, EDUCATION, PETROL.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
