Tata Comm Q4 loss widens over high costs, overseas unit

Mumbai: Tata Communications reported a wider fourth-quarter consolidated loss, hit by higher costs and dragged by its South African unit, keeping the international telecoms carrier in the red for the third straight year.[caption id=“attachment_317701” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Not enough money making. Reuters”]  [/caption]

The company, one of the world’s biggest undersea cable network owners, said consolidated net loss rose to Rs 261 crore for the three months ended March from Rs 157 crore a year earlier.

Total income rose to Rs 4,015 crore from Rs 3,146 crore.

For the fiscal year, consolidated net loss rose to Rs 795 crore from Rs 777 crore for the former state monopoly, which is now majority owned by the salt-to-software Tata conglomerate. The Indian government still owns 26 percent of the company.

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High capital spending in the past years and loans taken to fund those have hit Tata Communications’ profitability. Losses at its subsidiary Neotel , South Africa’s second-biggest fixed-line phone operator, have also been a drag on the company.

Tata Communications said it expects capital expenditure to drop to about $300 million a year from an average of about $500 million in recent years, while it hopes Neotel’s performance to improve although a profit was still sometime away.

Tata Communications, also listed in New York, this year walked away from a bidding race for Britain’s Cable & Wireless Worldwide, for which Vodafone made an offer.

Shares in Tata Communications, valued at about $1 billion, are down about five percent this year, compared with a nearly four percent rise on the Sensex.

Reuters