Vodafone Idea shares tank over 29% after telco's first-quarter earnings, subscriber base decline

New Delhi: Shares of Vodafone Idea on Monday cracked over 29 percent after the company’s first-quarter revenue as well as subscriber base declined. The scrip which opened the trade with nearly 3 percent decline later saw relentless selling and tanked 28.4 percent to Rs 6.60—its 52-week low on the BSE. At the NSE, shares plummeted 29.18 percent to Rs 6.55 — its one year low. [caption id=“attachment_4209517” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] “Vodafone Idea’s Q1 FY20 revenues fell by 4.3 percent quarter-on-quarter, belying recent hopes of stability,” according to a report by JM Financial Institutional Securities. India’s largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Friday narrowed its consolidated loss to Rs 4,873.9 crore for the June 2019 quarter. The company had registered a loss of Rs 4,881.9 crore in the fourth quarter of 2018-19, Vodafone Idea Ltd said in a regulatory filing. The merger of the India unit of Vodafone Group and Idea Cellular was completed on 31 August 2018, and the numbers of June quarter are not comparable with those in the year-ago period. The revenue of Vodafone Idea for the June 2019 quarter fell to Rs 11,269.9 crore as against Rs 11,775 crore logged in the January-March 2019 quarter. Vodafone Idea said the first-quarter revenue “declined by 4.3 percent quarter-on-quarter primarily due to churn of customers who recharged with ‘service validity vouchers’ in the fourth quarter as well as ARPU (average revenue per user) downtrading”. The company’s subscriber base declined to 320 million in the first quarter of this fiscal, from 334.1 million in the fourth quarter of the last financial year.