Reliance Jio Q4 net profit up 1.2 pc to Rs 510 crore

New Delhi: Telecom operator Reliance Jio today posted a 1.2 per cent sequential rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 510 crore for the last quarter of 2017-18.

The company had registered a net profit of Rs 504 crore in the October-December 2017 period. It had posted a loss of Rs 17.34 crore in the March quarter of 2016-17.

"The strong financial results of Jio in a competitive market environment demonstrates the robustness of the Jio business model and ability to offer the most value to our customers and partners.

"Jio has demonstrated that it can scale and sustain its strong financial performance," Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries Limited said in a statement.

The standalone revenue from operation came in 3.6 per cent higher quarter-on-quarter to Rs 7,128 crore as against Rs 6,879 crore in the third quarter.

The company posted its annual maiden profit of Rs 723 crore for the fiscal year 2017-18 while its revenue from operations stood at Rs 20,154 crore.

Jio had posted a loss of Rs 31.37 crore for the 2016-17 fiscal.

The subscriber base of Jio -- the aggressive newcomer which has waged a tariff war in the Indian telecom market -- stood at 186.6 million at the end of March 2018.

Jio's entry has led to a free fall in tariffs, triggering a price war in the industry that has eroded profitability of established operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

Earlier this week, Bharti Airtel posted a loss of Rs 652 crore before exceptional items for its India business in January-March quarter of 2018.

Despite low cost mobile services, Jio posted the highest average revenue per user in the industry at Rs 137.1 per month during the reported quarter.

Sunil Bharti Mittal-led Airtel reported an average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 116 for the quarter, down by 26.7 per cent from Rs 158 it had registered a year ago.

Reliance Jio reported total mobile data traffic of 506 crore GB with average data consumption per user per month of 9.7 GB and total voice traffic of 37,218 crore minutes during the reported quarter.

The company's statement said that the strong financial performance was "despite competitive pressures". PTI PRS MBI ABM