Indus Towers Q1 Net Profit Jumps 43% to Rs 1,926 crore

Indus Towers, reported a net profit of Rs 1,926 crore for the quarter ended June 2023, an increase of 42.88 percent from the Rs 1,348 crore in the same quarter last year

Indus Towers is country’s leading provider of passive telecom infrastructure like towers and communication. Higher tenancies and record tower additions led to the gain during the period. Its revenue from operations also increased  4.34 percent to Rs 7,383 crore from Rs 7,076 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Consolidated EBITDA was 4,545 crores, up 29.4 percent year-on-year and representing a 61.6 percent EBITDA margin. The company told that in Q1 FY25, it wrote back Rs 760 crores in provision for doubtful receivables, aided by collections against past overdue.

“Another quarter of robust tower additions reaffirm our competitive strength in the passive infrastructure space. Business growth and continued collection of past dues underpinned our strong financial performance. We expect network expansion and 5G deployments by our customers to continue to act as growth levers," Prachur Sah, Managing Director and CEO of Indus Towers Limited, said.

Quarter-on-quarter, the number of towers grew to 225,910 at June-end. Sharing revenue per tower per month was down 6.6 percent year-on-year at Rs 68,562.

Indus Towers' board also approved the proposal to buy back shares worth Rs 2,640 crore on July 30. The company will buy back 5.67 crore shares, representing a 2.107 percent stake in the company, at a price of Rs 465 per share.

Indus, in the exchange filing, also added that Bharti Airtel Ltd. will not be part of the share buyback.

Sah informed Vodafone Idea has been paying an amount largely equivalent to monthly billing since January 2023. It has also paid an amount of Rs 13,000 million against the old dues outstanding to date. Indus said it is discussing a final payment plan with the struggling telecom operator to clear its old overdue outstanding balance.

Indus added it will continue to monitor the financial condition of the telco. Considering the developments relating to funding and going concern matters of the telco, Indus, he said, believes that it will realize the
Carrying amounts of receivable and property, plant and equipment related to Vodafone Idea are included in the financial results as of June 30, 2024.

"The Company continues to recognize revenue from operations relating to the said customer for the services rendered. The Company carries an allowance for doubtful receivables of 46,237 Mn as of June 30, 2024 ( 53,847 Mn as of March 31, 2024) relating to the said customer, which covers all outstanding as of June 30, 2024," Sah said in a statement.