New Delhi: Vodafone India Tuesday reported a 12.6 percent jump in its total revenue at Rs 42,526 crore for the fiscal ended March 31, driven by strong customer additions and growth in data revenues.
The company had reported a total revenue of Rs 37,777 crore in the last financial year.
Vodafone continues to be net profit positive for second consecutive year, though it refused to share the amount.
"It's a second consecutive year net profit for the company. It's a good year but I am not commenting on the growth rate," Vodafone India Chief Financial Officer Thomas Reisten told reporters here.
The revenue from the services rose by same 12.6 percent to Rs 42,352 crore for the reported fiscal as compared to Rs 37,606 crore last year.
For the fourth quarter of FY15, the company reported a service revenue of Rs 10,887 crore as compared to Rs 9,713 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
Vodafone said the service revenues in Q4 were impacted by changes in inter-connect usage charges (IUC) prescribed by regulator Trai, effective March 1, which led to a marginal drop.
EBITDA or operating profit of the UK-based company's arm stood at Rs 12,605 crore for 2014-15, as compared to Rs 10,847 crore in the previous fiscal.
"During the year, we made significant capex investments to expand our network...All our focus areas ? data, Vodafone Business Services and M-Pesa performed well and maintain a high growth trajectory," Vodafone India Managing Director and CEO Sunil Sood said.
He said the company invested Rs 8,598 crore in FY15 mainly in new sites roll-out in order to deliver superior customer experience and growth in key focus areas.
The data (browsing) revenue for the reported fiscal stood at Rs 5,690 crore, a growth of 65.5 percent year-on-year.
Data now contributes 15 percent of service revenues whereas Vodafone Business Services contribute 13 percent of service revenues. Last year, data contributed 10 percent of service revenues.
Vodafone has a customer base of around 184 million, with nearly 97.9 million in rural areas and 19.4 million 3G customers.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) for Q4 FY15 stood at Rs 200. Data ARPU stood at Rs 141 in Q4 FY15 versus Rs 120 in Q4 FY14.
The company's money payment and transfer service M-Pesa base increased to 3 million registered customers, doing over 100K transactions/day.
Vodafone India now is the third largest contributor to group service revenue. A fresh equity infusion of Rs 6,000 crore was made to vodafone India during the fiscal.
The net debt for the company stands at Rs 47,807 crore as of March this year.
Sood said the company will be launching 4G services in select circles in the later half of the year and currently trials are going on for 4G in the circles.
Asked about increase in tariffs, Sood said it depends on the market.
"We are open to increase any tariffs as long as the market can take them and it makes business sense," he added.
On the question of net neutrality, Sood said the company supports net neutrality and net equality.
"The rules of the game can be decided by the government, we are open to suggestions, we are open to debate and let a knowledgeable panel decides...All we want to say is there should not be differences, there can't be different rules for the same service," he said.
On zero rating programmes, he said they are one form of sponsored programmes and there can be many forms.
"If you see the net, most of it is sponsored, nothing is free in this world," he added.
The MD and CEO of country's second largest mobile operator said the telcos need to penetrate data and has to adopt many ways to do that.
"We need to penetrate data...Data is not as easy as voice...We have to give freebies to encourage people to use," he added.
On the plans to come out with an IPO, Sood said its decided by shareholders and they evaluate all such decisions.
On Narendra Modi's one year in office, Sood said the Prime Minister's vision is perfect.
He added Modi has undertaken the Digital India programme and he has understood that IT or Internet industry is the future.
The Prime Minister has voiced his vision and its for the others to execute and put it down into fine print and that is what the industry is waiting for, Sood added.
