On numbers
It is a mixed set of numbers but I do not think there is any major disappointment unless and until there is something hidden between the lines. It is more or less in line, with little bits of misses here and there.
EBITDA margins have come in at 49.1%, mobile ARPU has come in at Rs 146. The monthly mobile data consumption per customer has come in at 18.5 GB. Your take?
We were working with ARPU of Rs 140-142 and so Rs 146 is above what our back of the envelope calculation was and per user consumption of the GB data is also a little bit higher. I hope there is a little bit of more positive verbatim from the management. A disclosure: As a brokerage house, Geojit has a positive coverage on Bharti Airtel from a long term point of view. As the second largest service provider, things should improve with the initiative that the government is putting in place.
The latest update on is something that has been brewing for some time. The company is going through tough times. Do we see a potential rerating of the other two players? Do we see a significant upside for Bharti Airtel as well?
Given the geography and demography of a country like India and the population that we have, one has to question whether having two or three players is feasible or whether there is a scope of having a larger competitive field.
Having said that, India has the second lowest telecom tariff globally and there is tremendous scope in terms of upward revision. The only thing is how well the customer/subscriber gets used to the new normal that we live in.
Along with that, sooner or later, we might see migration to the 5G technology and that requires a lot of capital investment. At Geojit, we cover two large players — Reliance because of the Jio business and Bharti Airtel. I hope that situation improves for a level playing field so that there is no mis advantage going forward from here on.
