RIL to pump in `1.08L cr in new digital services subsidiary Airtel Africa Q2 net profit rises 78% at $96 million Top global ranking for ITC’S ESG performance

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday said its board has approved the formation of a wholly-owned subsidiary for digital platform initiatives and investment of Rs 1.08 lakh crore in the unit.

The subsidiary will also acquire RIL'S equity investment of Rs 65,000 crore in Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL), it said in a regulatory filing.

Reliance Industries Ltd said that RJIL board has approved a scheme of arrangement between the company and certain classes of its creditors including debenture holders for transfer of identified liabilities of up to Rs 1.08 lakh crore to RIL.

"Rights Issue of Optionally Convertible Preference Shares ( OCPS') aggregating up to Rs. 1,08,000 crore for the purpose of payment of consideration for transfer of identified liabilities - WOS (wholly owned subsidiary) to subscribe to this issue," it added.

As a result, RJIL will become virtually net debt-free company by March 31, 2020, with exception of spectrumrelated liabilities, it noted.

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel's African arm Airtel Africa on Friday reported a 78 per cent jump in net profit to $96 million for the second quarter ended on September 30, 2019, driven by growth in customer base.

The company had recorded a net profit of $54 million in the same period a year ago.

The profit growth of the company, which provides telecom services in 14 African countries, was 83.6 per cent during the period under review in constant currency terms.

“The constant currency revenue growth of 11.4 per cent was driven by doubledigit growth in Nigeria and East Africa, partially offset by a slight decrease in Rest of Africa,” Airtel Africa said in a statement.

The revenue of Airtel Africa grew 9.8 per cent to $844 million during the reported quarter from $769 million in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19.

“In the first six months of this financial year, we delivered revenue growth of 11.4 per cent in constant currency terms, with even higher underlying EBITDA growth as we continued to improve our operating leverage and tight focus on costs,” Airtel Africa Chief

Executive Officer Raghunath Mandava said in a statement.

The average revenue per user almost remained flat at $2.8 in the second quarter. However, it grew by 2.4 per cent on constant currency basis.

Total customer base of Airtel Africa grew by 10.4 per cent to 103.9 million from 94.1 million during the period under review. Data users on the company's network grew by 17.7 per cent to 31.9 million in July-september 2019 from 27.1 million a year ago.

“This performance underlines our ability to consistently grow in double digits, powered by our growth engines of data and Airtel Money growing at 37 per cent and 46 per cent respectively. This is the 7th quarter of double-digit growth with EBITDA margin expansion of over 90 basis points,” Mandava said.

The net debt on the company almost halved to $3,191 million at the end of September 30, 2019, from $6,439 million a year ago. “The reduction in net debt is a result of bond repayments of $2.2 billion and an increase in cash from the net IPO proceeds of $670 million. As a result, leverage reduced to 2.3 times as of September 2019 as compared to 5.1 times as of September 2018 basis last twelve month EBITDA,” the company said.

KOLKATA: In recognition of its superior Environmental, Social and Governance models, ITC has been ranked number one globally amongst peers (comprising companies with market capitalisation between $38 billion and $51 billion) and number 3 overall on ESG performance in the Food Products industry by Sustainalytics – a global ESG rating company. ITC has also been rated AA by MSCI-ESG which is the highest amongst global tobacco companies & ahead of FMCG peers.

A global exemplar in sustainability, ITC has pursued innovation in business models to synergise the building of economic, ecological and social capital as a unified strategy. It is the only company in the world to be water, carbon and solid waste recycling positive for over a decade. ITC'S businesses support 6 million livelihoods in India. Pursuing a low carbon growth path, ITC has spearheaded a gamut of environmental initiatives. Nearly 41 per cent of ITC'S energy consumption is met from renewable sources, while its green building portfolio comprises 25 Platinum rated green buildings. ITC'S largescale social investments programme empower rural communities.