Vodafone’s revenue in India fell by 21.2% in Q4FY18, making it the multinational company’s only key market to record a fall. On an yearly basis, service revenue for India fell by 18.9% to Rs 34,855 crores in FY18. The reduction in revenue is in line with industry trends, and Vodafone cited reduction in interconnect usage charge, international termination charge and continuing suppressed pricing in the industry, as the causes for it. For the financial year, EBITDA for Vodafone India was Rs 7,766 crores. Adjusted EBITDA declined by 34.5% in FY18, with a 5.2 percentage point deterioration in adjusted EBITDA margin to 22.1%. “The impact of lower revenues was partially offset by significant actions to lower our operating cost base, as well as the benefit of a provision release in the fourth quarter following positive legal judgements,” Vodafone said. Another performance indicator, ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) for Q4FY18 was at Rs 119, as consumption patterns shift to deeply discounted bundled plans. Competitor Airtel has reported an ARPU of Rs 116 in the last quarter. In its Q3FY18 results, Vodafone India also reported decline in ARPU by 28% QoQ. During the year, the company continued to invest in network quality, with a capital expenditure/sales ratio of 20.4%. It added 48,500 sites in the year. As a result of its Capex, Vodafone claims it can carry 4.5x more data traffic than last year. User metrics Vodafone India added 14 million customers in the last quarter of financial year 2018 (Q4FY18), taking its…
