Average per user revenue up, Jio to fare better in Q3

NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd’s revenue is expected to rise in the December quarter driven by improvements in key metrics such as average revenue per user (Arpu) and the addition of high-paying customers to Jiofibre, the company’s fixed-line broadband services.

However, the revenue of its parent Jio Platforms Ltd is yet to be on par with the telecom segment as businesses of various digital services are still developing. Additionally, capital raised from global investors in 2020 is set to be utilized in the next few quarters, analysts said.

Jio Platforms Ltd, which houses the telecom business and a slew of other digital services such as healthcare, payments, gaming, cloud, over-the-top (OTT) content and music, raised ₹1.52 lakh crore in 2020 from 13 global investors, including Facebook, Google, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, ADIA, Mubadala, TPG, L Catterton, Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Intel Capital, and Qualcomm.

Revenue from digital services will depend on how fast the products of Jio Platforms are developed with the investments made last year. “The gap between Jio Infocomm and Jio Platforms revenues would show how digital revenues are trending,” Bofa Securities said in a report.

The revenue of Jio Platforms is likely to grow 4.3% quarter-onquarter to ₹19,300 crore in the December quarter. The telecom arm is expected to clock a 3.7% growth sequentially and a 29.8% rise in revenue to ₹18,130 crore from a year ago, according to brokerage firm Axis Capital.