Mumbai, Nov 14 (PTI) Following its peers, the secondlargest telco Vodafone India today reported a steep 39.2 percent plunge in pre-tax profit at Rs 4,075 crore for the sixmonths to September as its revenue fell 15.8 per cent to Rs19,002 crore due to the fierce completion since the entry ofReliance Jio.
The company, which is on course to merge with thethird largest player Idea had Rs 22,579 crore in revenues, andan operational profit of Rs 6,704 crore a year ago, which isdown 39.2 per cent.
Vodafone attributed the poor set of numbers to thecontinuing price competition from Jio and incumbents,seasonality and higher GST rate.
Service revenue fell 15.8 per cent to Rs 19,002 crorein H1 while Ebidta plunged 39.2 per cent to Rs 4,075 crorefrom Rs 6,704 crore, it said in a statement.
This is despite the fact that the company had strongperformance on cost delivering an Ebitda margin of 21.4 percent as "data usage quadrupled during the period" and had anoperating free cash flow of Rs 1,543 crore.
The company also increased its revenue market share(RMS) by 60 bps to 23.1 per cent during the reporting periodas its customer base rose 3.3 per cent to 207 million. PTI BENNRB.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.