Reliance Jio earnings preview | Q3 numbers set to rise on higher average revenue per user

Reliance Industries is all set to announce its quarterly financial results for the October-December quarter on Friday, January 20, and the conglomerate’s telecom unit Reliance Jio Infocomm is likely to register sequential revenue growth driven by an increase in average revenue per user (ARPU).

Reliance Jio’s revenue is likely to grow by 2.8 percent to Rs 23,150 crore in the third quarter of the fiscal as against Rs 22,521 crore in the previous three-month period from July-September, according to a CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts.

On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, revenue shall witness a 19.65 percent increase.

According to analysts, growth in revenue will be driven by an increase in ARPU. Reliance Jio’s ARPU is estimated to increase 1.3 percent at Rs 179.5 from Rs 177.2 in the previous quarter.

In October, Reliance Jio added 1.4 million subscribers as per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data. Analysts expect subscriber addition to be lower this quarter than the 7.7 million in the previous quarter in wake of muted smartphone shipments.

As per the poll, the telco’s profit after tax (PAT) shall rise to Rs 4,650 crore, up 2.2 percent from Rs 4,518 crore in the last quarter. The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin is expected to come at 52.2 percent, compared to 51 percent in the previous quarter.

The benefit of lower spectrum usage charge (SUC) related to spectrum purchased in July 2022 auctions reflected only in the second half of the second quarter of financial year 2023 (from August 17) and the third quarter is expected to see benefits of reduction in SUC, as per the poll.

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