Reliance Jio’s free pricing blitzkrieg has triggered the largest round of consolidation in the telecom industry. Vodafone and Idea Cellular are reportedly in talks for what could possibly be an all share merger deal; Vodafone indicated that its 42% stake in Indus is excluded from any potential transaction. Such an agreement would combine the 2nd and 3rd largest domestic telco operators, commanding ~40% revenue and 35% subscriber market share, ahead of Airtel’s 31% revenue and
vodafone-india-performance
Idea + Vodafone Go OverBoard to Acquire 900Mhz Spectrum in Metros
The 1800MHz and 900Mz auctions finally concluded yesterday with incumbents stealing the show with mega spectrum wins across the country. Airtel, Idea and Vodafone that have immensely strengthened their data arsenal. While the bidding seems to be stressing the valuation for the telecom companies but we believe the auctions have clearly demonstrated the direction for further consolidation in the industry. We strongly believe that the significant acquisition
Vodafone India’s Voice Profits Rise Subscribe Base at 155Mn
Vodafone India’s 1QFY14 results appear to have benefited from a stable competitive environment in India, with revenues growing 7.8% QoQ and voice ARPMs rising. Indeed, the growth in voice realizations were the highlight, which is likely to increase gradually. Vodafone’s India revenues increased 7.8% QoQ to Rs94bn (excluding Indus revenues) underpinned by a strong growth in voice and data revenues in 1QFY14. Voice revenue growth (including messaging revenues; change in reporting by Vodafone) increased 7.4% QoQ whilst data revenues increased 17.6% QoQ.
Revenue growth during the quarter was led by both,
Vodafone 3G Data Growth vs Revenue Mismtach
Vodafone has 3.3mn 3G subscribers in India, representing 2.3% of its subscriber base (vs 3.4% for Airtel and 4.2% for Idea). However, note that whilst data traffic has increased by 165.1% YoY in FY13, data revenues have increased by only 19.7% over the same period, which may indicate that growth was driven by discounted data packages or freebies.
Vodafone reported India revenues of Rs 96.4bn, up 11.5% YoY, driven primarily by recovery in voice growth. Core voice revenues grew only 7% YoY despite a sharp QoQ recovery (+4.3% QoQ). Traffic growth came in at 9% YoY as against 11% in Q3. The SMS revenue decline accelerated to 14.5% YoY, while Data revenues grew ~30% YoY. EBITDA margins in 2H13 improved by 70bps to 29%.