Vodafone India's pre-tax profit plunges over 39% to Rs 4,075 cr in Apr-Sep

Mumbai: Following its peers, the second largest telco Vodafone India on Tuesday reported a steep 39.2 percent plunge in pre-tax profit at Rs 4,075 crore for the six months to September as its revenue fell 15.8 percent to Rs 19,002 crore due to the fierce competition since the entry of Reliance Jio. [caption id=“attachment_4209517” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] The company, which is on course to merge with the third largest player Idea had Rs 22,579 crore in revenues, and an operational profit of Rs 6,704 crore a year ago, which is down 39.2 percent. Vodafone attributed the poor set of numbers to the continuing price competition from Jio and incumbents, seasonality and higher GST rate. Service revenue fell 15.8 percent to Rs 19,002 crore in H1 while Ebidta plunged 39.2 percent to Rs 4,075 crore from Rs 6,704 crore, it said in a statement. This is despite the fact that the company had strong performance on cost delivering an Ebitda margin of 21.4 percent as “data usage quadrupled during the period” and had an operating free cash flow of Rs 1,543 crore. The company also increased its revenue market share (RMS) by 60 bps to 23.1 percent during the reporting period as its customer base rose 3.3 percent to 207 million. (Disclosure - Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)