No 3 carrier, Idea Cellular<\/a>’s losses, they said, are likely to also mount significantly in the fiscal first quarter as the Kumar Birla led telco is likely to be weighed down by the strain of low tariffs for a disproportionately long period along with the continued migration of subscribers to lower priced bundled packs from higher ones, they said.
For market leader Bharti Airtel, brokerage Nomura estimates a net loss of Rs 500 crore, while Kotak Securities expects it to be around Rs 449 crore. Goldman Sachs<\/a> pegs it significantly lower, at Rs 220 crore. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 83 crore in the January-March quarter, and Rs 367 crore in the yearago period.
Chief executive officer Gopal Vittal told ET this week that Airtel’s India operations are likely to widen net losses in the June quarter — from Rs 652.30 crore in the January-March period — since revenue remains under pressure and costs continue to rise.
Losses at Idea, whose merger with Vodafone<\/a> India has been delayed beyond the June-end timeline, will continue to mount. While Bank of America-Merrill Lynch estimates it at Rs 2,493 crore, Credit Suisse<\/a> expects it to increase to nearly Rs 1,444 crore, from Rs 815 crore a year ago.
Bharti Airtel shares closed 1.01% lower on the BSE on Wednesday at Rs 366.45, while the Idea scrip fell over 3% to Rs 55.15.
Deutsche Bank<\/a> said the “5% depreciation in the rupee in the June quarter is likely to impact Bharti’s reported interest costs via mark-to-market (MTM) forex losses,” given that “around 50% of Airtel’s $14.6 billion debt is FX or forex-denominated”. Such a scenario, it said, is likely to see the “forex impact ballooning to Rs 40 billion in the June quarter from a modest Rs 70 million\/quarter in the last two quarters.”
Nomura has forecast an 11% sequential decline in its India wireless EBITDA(operating income) and a 6% on-quarter drop in its consolidated EBITDA to Rs 6,590 crore.
Credit Suisse expects listed incumbents Bharti Airtel and Idea to report subdued earnings numbers in the April-June period, courtesy the “full quarter impact of Jio’s lower prepaid plans and postpaid tariff cuts”.
Bank of America-Merrill Lynch expects Bharti’s India cellular revenues<\/a> to remain largely flattish on-quarter at Rs 10,400 crore as “incremental revenue from the Telenor India acquisition would be offset by downtrading pressure, mainly from postpaid subscribers and the full quarterly impact of international termination rate cuts” that took effect in February.
Kotak Securities agreed that customer movement to the most competitive bundled plans “continues on the back of increasing smartphone adoption”, but said “the pace of such downtrading is moderating”.
Goldman Sachs expects Idea’s “high leverage relative to its peers to continue to be an overhang on the stock, despite recent deleveraging initiatives by the company”. It also expects Idea’s top line growth to lag Bharti, given the No 3 carrier’s “lower network investments” compared to the market leader.
Swiss brokerage UBS estimates Airtel’s consolidated revenue in the FY19 first quarter to fall 11% from Rs 21,958 crore a year ago, but
Kotak builds a near 8% on-quarter ARPU decline for Airtel to Rs 107 and expects Idea’s to drop 5.6% sequentially to Rs 99 in the June quarter, noting that “continued adoption of bundled plans would remain ARPU dilutive for now”.
Analysts though expect the April-June period to see the full quarter revenue contribution from Aircel customers gained by incumbents like Airtel and Idea in the fourth quarter FY18.
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