Indus Towers-Net profit rises 19% QoQ to Rs 1541 crore in Q3FY24

Indus Towers on Tuesday reported a 19% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increase in net profit to Rs 1,541 crore in the October-December quarter. An increase in profit can be attributed to fall in other expenses that include provision for doubtful debts, which the company created towards one of its largest customer Vodafone Idea.

During the quarter, the company created an overall net provision for doubtful debt of Rs 64 crore related to Vodafone Idea, compared to Rs 130 crore in the preceding quarter. As at December 31, 2023, Vodafone Idea owes Indus Towers about Rs 5,700 crore, for which the tower company has made a provision for doubtful debts.

The company’s revenue from operations rose 1% QoQ to Rs 7,199 crore. On a year-on-year basis, the company’s revenue rose 6.4%. “Our third consecutive quarter of record tower additions demonstrated our robust operational performance. This was mirrored in the strong financial performance, which was further supplemented by steady collections,” said Prachur Sah, managing director and CEO, of the company.

“We expect our major customer’s focus on its network expansion and the ongoing 5G rollouts to continue yielding growth opportunities for us in the near term. Our timely investments to capitalise on these opportunities will generate long term returns for our shareholders,” Sah added.

On operational front, the average rent paid by a customer to Indus Towers for using towers rose 1% q-o-q to Rs 41,454 per installation per month in the October-December quarter. During the quarter, Indus Towers added 7,563 towers, taking total macro towers to 211,755. The company’s co-locations rose by 7,217 to 360,679. Financial Express