The parent company of Reliance Jio, headed by the billionaire Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) filed its quarterly earnings report today. This means that we got to know a great deal about the business of Reliance Jio in the past three months, the third quarter of FY20. This quarter has been a major one for the telecom companies with the data tariff hike introduction and increase of the price of prepaid plans, and also the introduction of the IUC recharges for the Jio customers which help the users make calls to other operators at 6 paise per minute. In its quarterly earnings report, Reliance Jio has shared lots of important figures and has revealed the number of added subscribers in this time period. Reliance Jio has amassed 37 million subscribers in this quarter and has reported significant improvement in EBITDA and other parameters.
Jio Increases Margin, EBITDA and Operating Revenue
One of the prime indicators of business performance is the EBITDA, in which Reliance Jio reported that it cashed in Rs 5,601 crore as compared to the Rs 5,166 crore in the previous quarter of FY20. The operating revenue of the company also went up to Rs 13,968 crore up from the previous figure of Rs 13,130 crore. Another positive parameter for Reliance Jio was EBITDA margin, which was 39.3% in the last quarter, but in the third quarter, this EBITDA margin went to 40.1%. Speaking of net profits, the figure which was just Rs 990 crore in the previous period, came up to Rs 1,350 crore in the quarter being studied. It is also worth noting that Reliance Jio had exceptional items deducted from its standalone net profit too which were in the quantum of Rs 177 crore in the name of AGR dues.
ARPU Grows for Reliance Jio
Another major figure for Reliance Jio was the subscriber base which stood at 370 million subscribers at the end of 2019. This showed a 32.1% YoY growth for Reliance Jio. The most interesting figure perhaps in the entire Reliance Jio earnings report for the third quarter was the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) which was pegged at Rs 128.4 as compared to the last time when the ARPU had just touched Rs 120. As the analysts had predicted, Reliance Jio managed to up its ARPU to Rs 128 with the new data tariff hike, and the introduction of the IUC recharges. With this, Reliance Jio also noted that the total wireless data traffic in the quarter was 1,208 crore GBs and voice traffic was 82,640 crore minutes showing 39.9% and 30.3% YoY growth. Jio also lost 22 million subscribers in this period who were primarily heavy voice users.
Commenting on the results, Shri Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “Jio has continued on its unprecedented growth journey receiving overwhelming customer response for best in class mobile connectivity services. We are delivering on our promise to be the driver of the digital revolution in the country. Jio is also determined to redefine the wireline infrastructure, home entertainment and enterprise market in India with its FTTx services which bundle best-in-class connectivity with bouquet of digital content and services.”
Jio Forms New Digital Platforms Entity
Another one of the highlights for Reliance Jio in this quarter was the formation of Jio Platforms Limited, which is the largest digital services platform company of India. Jio has remarked, “Jio continues to focus on technology-enabled Emerging Digital Platforms that enable and accelerate Digital Society – Healthcare, Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Gaming, Government to Citizen services, and many more. These platforms are also backed by investment in next-gen technologies like Blockchain, AI/ ML, AR/ MR, Edge Computing.” This new entity will also hold RJIL as well, Jio has noted.
