Growth Services revenues rise 15.1% YoY and turns EBITDA positive | Consolidated EBITDA increases by 13.8% YoY

Photo Credit : Shutterstock,

In breif | FY2019

·Data business witnessed strong growth; revenue grew by 10.4% YoY on the back of strong performance in Growth Services and revenue uptick in Innovation Services

·Data Services now contribute to 76.6% of the overall revenues; up from 68.3% in FY18

·EBITDA grew +13.8% YoY driven by strong profitability in data business; margins came in at 16.6%, an increase of 220 bps YoY

·Growth Services2 portfolio witnessed strong momentum; revenue grew by 15.1% YoY to USD 398 Mn on the back of large deal wins in this portfolio

·Traditional Services3 remained stable despite industry headwinds with operator consolidation; revenue declined by 2.2% YoY. This portfolio has started to stabilize and is expected to grow in FY20

·Data EBIDTA for the year was INR 2,409 crore; +16.6% YoY, primarily due to Growth Services turning EBITDA positive in Q4

·Consolidated Revenue reported at INR 16,525 crore; a decline of 1.5% YoY due to a decline in Voice business by 27.1% YoY. Strong performance in data business has helped mitigate this decline in voice to a large extent

·PAT loss significantly came down to INR 82.4 crore as compared to a loss of INR 328.6 crore in FY18

·CAPEX for FY2019 was at USD 267 Mn as compared to USD 235 Mn in FY18, due to additional investment towards India backbone expansion

Highlights | Q4 FY2019

·        Consolidated revenue grew by 5.0% YoY and declined by 0.6% QoQ. Adjusted for one-time AFA gain in Q3, revenue grew by 1.2% QoQ

·        Data business revenue grew by 14.2% YoY and 0.5% QoQ, on the back of strong performance in Growth Services. Adjusted for AFA gain, QoQ growth was 2.8%

·Growth Services reported sequential QoQ revenue growth of 9.2%

·        PAT loss for the quarter was at INR 198.8 crore due to equity loss pick up in STT, Singapore data center business to the tune of INR 173 crore

Commenting on the results, Vinod Kumar, MD and CEO, Tata Communications, said,

“The strong growth in our data business has helped us deliver consistent financial performance and create momentum for our future growth. Growth Services continue to scale up and adoption of these platform services is enabling deeper engagement with customers. Our focus remains on offering best in class digital infrastructure solutions; ensuring seamless global connectivity and effortless digital transformation for businesses around the world.”

Commenting on the results, Pratibha K. Advani, CFO, Tata Communications, said, 

“Our startegy to focus on our Data Services portfolio has started to show results with our Growth Services portfolio turning EBITDA positive on the back of strong topline growth and we are starting to see significant traction in our innovation services portfolio. We are confident that we are moving in the right direction and our focus remains on strengthening our cash flows and return ratios as we continue to pursue profitable growth opportunities in future.”