Indus Towers revenue drops 5% to Rs 6,753 crore

Indus Towers (formerly Bharti Infratel) has reported revenue of Rs 6,753 crore (–5 percent) in January-March and Rs 28,382 crore (+2 percent) in fiscal 2022-23.
Indus Towers telecom tower growthIndus Towers, a leading telecom tower company, reported net profit of Rs 1,399 crore (–23 percent) in January-March and Rs 2,040 crore (–68 percent) in fiscal 2022-23.

“The renewal of co-locations with our major customers has secured our business over the long run. The rapid pace of 5G rollouts and new tower rollouts supported by our major customer’s focus on expansion are expected to act as strong levers of growth for the foreseeable future,” Prachur Sah, Managing Director and CEO, Indus Towers, said.

Indus Towers has enhanced the number of telecom towers to 192,874 during January-March 2023 against 189,392 during October-December 2022.

Indus’ tower and tenancy additions of 3.5K/3.4K were the highest in 6-8 quarters, driven by Airtel’s rural network expansion.

“We expect this to continue driving growth in FY24. Normalized rentals per tenant were steady in 4Q and we expect rentals to inch up as 5G rollout-led loading revenues start flowing through in FY24,” Jefferies said in a note to clients.

Indus Towers’ receivables and other financial assets declined in 4Q, suggesting that Vodafone Idea, the third largest telecom operator in India, has paid its entire dues in 4Q. This helped Indus Towers generate FCF of Rs 7 bn in 4Q (Rs14bn in FY23).