India's Vodafone Idea narrows quarterly loss on bigger per-user revenue

Nov 12 (Reuters) - India's Vodafone Idea VODA.NS reported a narrower second-quarter loss on Thursday, driven by higher average revenue per user (ARPU) as more users migrated to higher-value 4G and 5G services along with higher data usage.

• Consolidated pre-tax loss narrowed to 54.99 billion rupees ($587.25 million) in the quarter ended September 30, from 55.65 billion rupees a year earlier

• Adjusted for a 4.6 billion-rupee one-off charge, Vodafone Idea posted a loss after tax of 59.75 billion rupees

• Overall revenue rose about 6.2% to 118.84 billion rupees, narrowly missing analysts' average estimate of 118.96 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG

• The debt-laden telco has been stepping up investment in its 4G and 5G networks to improve network quality and arrest subscriber losses, while seeking bank debt to fund its planned 450 billion-rupee capital spending

• The June quarter marked Vodafone Idea's first quarterly sequential net subscriber addition since the 2018 Vodafone India-Idea merger

• User base rose to 194.4 million, as of September-end, from 193.1 million as of June-end

• ARPU, a key telecom metric, rose 9.7% year-on-year to 198 rupees in the quarter, helped by a 2.5% increase in its 4G and 5G user base and 27% growth in data usage

• Total expenses rose 5.3%, led by higher finance and roaming costs

($1 = 93.64 Indian rupees)