Vodafone Idea reported 2.2% lower net loss at Rs6,418 crore in Q4FY23. While operating expenses were on the higher side, revenue growth and 4G additions helped. Q4FY23 revenues were up 2.8% at Rs10,531 crore while a 13% spike in operating expenses led to a 9.4% fall in EBITDA. The ARPU remained flat at Rs135 sequentially, but was up 8.8% on a yoy basis. Its 4G customer count grew to 122.6 million, but the carrier is struggling to ramp up its 5G network at the same pace at which Jio and Bharti Airtel are doing.
The NCLT deferred the hearing on the insolvency plea filed by aircraft lessor Aircastle against SpiceJet. The hearing will now happen on 01st June. This pertains to unpaid dues of Rs49 crore to Aircastle. The NCLT view was that since the parties were under settlement discussions, they could continue the same. Two other lessors have also filed similar petitions of insolvency against SpiceJet. It is official that on 19th May, DGCA had deregistered 3 aircraft of SpiceJet at the request of lessors, of which 2 were not in service.
In the ongoing challenges to the Zee-Sony merger, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will wait for some time before selling the media rights of the IPL. It is also not clear if the rights will be sold for 4 years or less. Sony had the IPL broadcast rights on its channel till 2017. Subsequently, Disney Star picked up the rights to broadcast and stream matches on TV and its digital platform for all ICC events. However, Sony Sports continues to own the rights to broadcast matches from England, Pakistan, and even Sri Lanka.
Finance Ministry notified 21 countries, including the US, UK, and France; from where non-resident investment in unlisted Indian startups will not attract angel tax. The list excludes tax havens like Singapore, Netherlands, and Mauritius. Union Budget 2023-24 had brought overseas investment in unlisted closely held companies under the Angel Tax net. In the light of this announcement, the venture capital segment had sought exemptions for certain overseas investor classes. CBDT has already issued the negative list.
Wipro has merged its ISRE (Indian business from state-run enterprises) vertical with its broader IT Services vertical after revenues from the same segment fell 20.2% in FY23. There was a sharp fall in government IT contracts to private sector companies. Wipro is also facing problems in collection of overdue receivables from government businesses. This merger is more for rationalization of business. The share of the ISRE business in overall revenues has been consistently falling. ISRE became a separate segment only in FY19.
Distressed asset investors like PAG, Oaktree and Varde Partners are getting aggressive on the current real estate market in India. As demonetization hampered credit to builders, these distressed funds poured in millions of dollars. It is estimated that these distressed realty funds have lent close to $3 billion to real estate players in India in the last 3 years. These funds have also invested heavily in projects of Shapoorji Pallonji group, after the fund had run into a financial crunch at the height of the fracas with the Tatas.
Zee Entertainment posted net loss of Rs196 crore for Q4FY23 on the back of an advertising slowdown in the quarter. In fact, the Bloomberg consensus estimates had pegged Q4FY23 net profits at Rs113 crore, but the company ended up with a net loss as revenues fell nearly 10% yoy. Advertising revenue fell 11% to Rs1,006 crore in Q4FY23 a Zee saw its EBITDA fall 70% to Rs152 crore. This was also attributed to higher levels of strategic investments across the business. OPM contracted to from 21.8% to 7.2% on a yoy basis.
Account aggregators have disbursed Rs6,000 crore of loans through AA-based underwriting. With the framework in place, the growth is getting much better. In fact, several banks and NBFCs implemented AA-based processes for a slew of retail product segments. The experience of AA-based approach has been better customer experience and faster turnaround time for loans. In addition, reduction in drop-off rates, lower fraud cases, lower costs and comprehensive borrower data have been some of the advantages here.