If you thought your January was tough, Vodafone Idea just lost 35mn subs

Most people consider January one of the worst months of the year, but Vodafone Idea could potentially trump your misery after reporting a year-on-year decline of 35 million subscriptions.

As is now commonplace with any CEO of a major business, Balesh Sharma was all a twirl spinning off the tough times of the quarter as positives, and in fairness there are some valid points. From a financial perspective, total revenues decreased 2% year-on-year to roughly £1.27 billion, while total subscriptions declined from 422.3 million in Q3 to 387.2 million for the last three months.

“We are progressing well on our stated strategy,” said Sharma. “The initiatives taken during the quarter started showing encouraging trends by the end of the quarter.

“We are moving faster than expected on integration, specifically on the network front, and we are well on track to deliver our synergy targets. We remain focused on fortifying our position in key districts by expanding the coverage and capacity of our 4G network, and target a higher share of new 4G customers, while offering an enhanced network experience to our customers. The proceeds from the announced capital raise will put us in a strong position to achieve our strategic goals.”

Looking at Sharma’s reasons, firstly on the revenues it might not be as bad as it looks. The most recent figures are being compared to a period where the two firms accounting policies were not aligned, while there was always going to be a bit of heavy going through the initial integration process. On the subscriptions front, the team blamed the fact that various customers consolidated spending from multiple to single SIMs.

On the 4G side of things, the total subscription base did increase to 75.3 million, up 9.5 million during the quarter, while coverage has also increased. The combined business is starting to generate notable benefits, national roaming was introduced on both networks, with each brand now offering 4G across all 22 service regions. During the three months, 11,123 4G sites were added to the network.

At first glance, this might not be the most comfortable reading, but you have to bear in mind this is a business which is starting to find its feet. Merging two businesses is never the easiest of jobs, but with the threat of Reliance Jio causing havoc everywhere Indian telco executives look, the pressure is certainly higher.

Reliance Jio has forced evolution onto the Indian telco industry, with victims scattered all over the landscape. The Telenor evacuation was first, Airtel is flagging, Reliance Communications has been decimated and the merger between Vodafone and Idea was the other major casualty. The team has to be given time to create a business which can provide suitable resistance to the Reliance Jio momentum, but Sharma will be wary he doesn’t have much.