The stocks of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications fell as much as 13% on Monday morning trade after the telecom company reported a Rs 966-crore loss for the quarter that ended in March 2017. At 11.10 am, the company was trading 16.67% lower at Rs 21.50 after falling to an all time low of 20% down in early trade.
On Saturday, Reliance Communications posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 966 crore in the fourth quarter compared with the net profit of Rs 90 crore made in the same period last year, PTI reported. The consolidated revenues in the January to March 2017 quarter stood at Rs 4,524 crore, 24% lower than the same period in 2016. The loss for the 2016-2017 fiscal year stood at Rs 1,283 crore as against the net profit of Rs 660 crore in 2015-2016.
The company, in its regulatory filing at the Bombay Stock Exchange, said it had seen a full year loss for the “first time since [its] inception”. It said the Indian telecom sector has been “severely impacted” by the “free offers, disruptive pricing and hyper-competition”.
“The telecom sector in India has been very adversely impacted during the financial year 2016-2017 by competitive intensity on a scale never witnessed before in the country,” the company said in a statement.
Meanwhile, The Economic Times on Monday reported that the company had delayed the repayment of loans to more than ten banks, which forced some banks to categorise it as a “special mention account” in their asset books. Special mention account assets are declared when a borrower has failed to make their interest payment.
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