Vodafone Idea share price drops nearly 3% despite Q3 loss narrowing to ₹6,609 crore and ARPU rising to ₹173

The stock fell 2.7% to ₹8.58 per unit on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at 9:22 am.

Vi reported narrowing consolidated losses to ₹6,609.3 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal year, compared to ₹6,985.9 crore a year ago.

Revenue from operations advanced 4% to ₹11,117.3 crore in the quarter under review as against ₹10,673.1 crore in the same period last year.

Average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric for all telcos, increased sequentially by 4.7% to ₹173 in Q3 FY25, compared to ₹166 in the September quarter.

In an exchange filing, vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra informed investors that the telco is driving investments and the velocity of capital expenditure deployment is set to accelerate in the coming quarters. He also informed that the phased rollout of 5G services is underway.

"We are pleased to report highest quarterly cash EBITDA since merger of ₹24.5 billion, registering a YoY growth of ~15%. With our intensifying investments, we anticipate further improvement in both operational and financial performance. With the recent equity infusion of ₹19.1 billion from one of our promoters, we have now secured approximately ₹260 billion in fresh equity capital over the past 10 months," Moondra said.

The company is engaging with lenders for debt financing in line with its planned network expansion investment of ₹500-₹550 billion over three years, he said.

"The government's decision on the bank guarantee waiver underscores its ongoing support for the telecom sector -- a critical pillar of Digital India's future," Moondra added.

Quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), the losses were down from ₹7,175.9 in Q2 FY25, and revenue from operations surged 1.7%.

Vodafone Idea has a total subscriber base of 199.8 million, including 126 million 4G subscribers.

"We are on track to achieve our 4G population coverage target of 1.1 billion by March 2025 and plan to further increase it to 1.2 billion that is about 90 per cent of population," Vi said in a regulatory filing.