Spice Mobility’s mobile devices business continues to face losses: the segment posted a net loss before tax of Rs 24.71 crore for the quarter ended December 31st 2015, compared to a loss of Rs 5.95 crore in the previous quarter.
Year-on-year, the company’s losses decreased as it reported a loss of Rs 29.21 crore the same quarter last year.
The segment reported total revenues of Rs 365.02 crore for the quarter, registering a decline of 16.3% from Rs 436.06 crore the preceding quarter. On a year-on-year basis, the revenues declined by 30.8% from Rs 527.66 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
Mobile devices business continues to dominate Spice Mobility’s revenues, accounting for 85.58% of the company’s revenues for the quarter that stood at Rs 426.48 crore. The mobile devices segment accounted for 92% of the company’s revenues in the same quarter last year and 87.8% in the preceding quarter.
Services profit increases: The revenue from Spice Mobility’s services business increased to Rs 62.83 crore for the quarter, up 33% from Rs 47.21 crore in the same quarter last year and up by 1.2% from Rs 62.09 crore in the preceding quarter.
The profit before tax decreased to Rs 11.7 crore for the quarter, down 76.46% from Rs 49.7 crore profit in the same quarter last year and down from Rs 33.3 crore profit in the previous quarter. Services business represented about 14.73% of Spice Mobility’s revenues for the quarter.
Overall, Spice Mobility posted revenues of Rs 426.44 crore for the quarter, down from Rs 573.26 crore in the same quarter last year and down 14.1% from Rs 496.5 crore in the preceding quarter. The company reported net loss before tax of Rs 24.11 crore for the quarter, compared to the loss of Rs 25.75 crore in the same quarter last year and a loss of Rs 2.88 crore in the preceding quarter.
Stake in Sunstone Eduversity: Last month, Spice Mobility acquired 22.54% stake in Delhi-based Sunstone Eduversity. The acquisition was an all cash deal, but the financials were not disclosed. Spice Mobility stated had that Sunstone Eduversity Private Limited was a newly incorporated company, and thus, its last three years’ turnover ‘was not applicable’.
Creative Functionapps: In July Spice Digital, a subsidiary of Spice Mobility, acquired 26% stake in telecom technology solutions providers Creative Functionapps Lab for an undisclosed amount. Following the deal, Creative Functionapps would become an Associate Company of Spice Digital.
With Spice Mobility’s mobile devices business continuing to post losses, the acquisition of Sunstone Eduversity and Creative Functionapps could be the company’s attempt to prop up its services business, which has been steadily increasing its share in the company’s total revenues.
Delisting plans on hold: In May last year, Spice Mobility’s promoters Smart Ventures Private Limited, informed the stock exchanges that it was putting on hold any step in the direction of the proposed delisting of the equity shares. In January, Spice Mobility promoter Smart Ventures Private Limited had received board approval to delist the company from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Download: Financials (pdf)
