Vodafone Idea shares fall 29% on sudden revenue loss

Mumbai, July 29 (IANS) Vodafone Idea shares on Monday fell to its all-time low level over sudden revenue deterioration reported in its quarterly results, reflecting the stress in the Indian telecom sector.

Sell-off in the Vodafone Idea shares came on the back of investor concerns on the stability of the company, which saw the scrips fall as much as 29 per cent on the BSE before it closed 27.03 per cent lower at Rs 6.75 apiece.

JM Financial in its investor note on Vodafone Idea said that the company's key performance indicators (KPIs) show "eroding consumer mind-share and perception, driven primarily by its 4G coverage/capacity deficit relative to Bharti and Jio".

Evaluating the results the brokerage firm said that Vodafone Idea's reported a "sudden revenue deterioration", which could have panicked the investors on Monday.

Vodafone Idea had on Friday reported a loss of Rs 4,873.9 crore in the June quarter against the Rs 4,881.9 crore loss in the previous quarter. Its revenue fell to Rs 11,269.9 crore as against Rs 11,775 crore in the March quarter.

The brokerage firm highlighted the sharp decline in the Vodafone Idea's subscriber base, which dropped by 14 million (quarter-on-quarter).

JM Financial said that the revenue decline was "driven by further SIM consolidation-subs on unlimited voice (ULV) packs not willing to spend Rs 35 for maintaining another SIM; down trading by voice-centric users to Rs 119/129 ULV packs (2 GB/month) from Rs 169 (1 GB/day); muted MBB additions i.e. no smartphone-led ARPU upgrades.