In its first quarter of fiscal 09, Idea Cellular owned Spice Communications has reported a 68.8% rise in net loss to Rs. 349.10 million from previous quarter. Though Idea grasped management control over Spice on October 16, 2008, it was only in this quarter that Spice was expected to be able to benefit from the synchronising of their IT systems, delivery and call centres. Idea Cellular's MD Sanjeev Aga said in the earnings call in April (transcript available here) that a dramatic improvement in margins could not be expected as the spend on network expansion in Karnataka, a large circle, would overtake the revenue increase. Details: Financials | Release | Conference Call Spice's revenues only rose 3% to Rs. 3304 million during the quarter. Network operating costs do not reflect massive expansion, instead seem to be reigned in at Rs. 898.70 million from Rs. 1297.20 million, but expenses rose 15.5% to Rs. 3227.30 million. Depreciation and amortisation costs amounted to Rs. 634.80 million for the quarter. EPS, which had risen to -Rs. 0.3 fell back to -Rs. 0.5 this quarter. License fees showed a marginal increase to Rs. 339.20 million from Rs. 332.70 million last quarter. Was there an expansion? Note: Spice's financial year ends in December but they extended the financial year to 15 months last time. Also, though Spice's financials are merged with Idea's consolidated report due this week, the numbers may not reconcile due to regrouping and eliminations as part of consolidation, as the company mentioned in…
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