Reliance communications Q3 net zooms 198pc

New Delhi, Jan 31: Reliance Communications Ltd today posted a whopping 198 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 924 crore during the third quarter ended December 31, 2006 as against Rs 310 crore in the same period last year.

The revenue grew at 26 per cent at Rs 3,755 crore from Rs 2,991 crore while the EBITDA margin expanded to a record of 41 per cent from 29 per cent, with strong contributions across all businesses.

The EBITDA at Rs 1,527 crore recorded a growth of 76 per cent over the corresponding quarter last year.

Shareholders Equity crossed Rs 20,000 crore. Net Debt to Equity Ratio further reduced to 0.07:1, providing substantial borrowing capacity to fund future growth.

The capex for FY07 is now expected at over Rs 7,700 crore, the company said in a statement.

Commenting on the results, Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Dhirubhai Ambani said, ''We have delivered another quarter of strong revenue and EBITDA growth across all our business segments. Net profits have increased by three times in the past year.'' This performance has lifted Reliance Communications into the select group of companies with annualised EBITDA of well over Rs 5,000 crore, EBITDA margins above 40 per cent, Shareholders Equity of over Rs 20,000 crore and and a Stockmarket Value of nearly Rs 94,000 crore.

The Board of Reliance Communications has approved the global listing of FLAG Telecom.

Reliance Communications has turned around the performance of FLAG Telecom over the past year and aligned it with the Indian franchise.

FLAG had recently announced its nearly Rs 7,000 crore in Next Generation Network project which on completion will make the company the largest fully IP-enabled global undersea cable system operator touching 80 per cent of the world population.

The Board of Reliance Communications noted the shareholder approval given to the scheme of demerger of the wireless towers business.

The Board approved Reliance Telecom Infrastructure to examine options for unlocking the value of its assets.

The company added a record four million wireless customer (net) during the quarter, compared with 2.1 million in the corresponding quarter last year.

At the end of December last year, the company had over 30 million wireless customers on its network, representing a market share of 20.5 per cent of the All India wireless market. It maintained market share of net wireless customer additions at 20.2 per cent in Q3 FY2007.

UNI