Idea records highest RMS growth in Q4, FY14

Idea Cellular, India's third-largest mobile operator, recorded a 0.5 per cent increase in Revenue Market Share (RMS) in the fourth quarter on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

The Aditya Birla Group company posted a 1.3-per cent rise in RMS for the full year ended March 2014 from the same period a year ago. The RMS data was derived from the revenue performance report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI).

As per the report, Idea Cellular's RMS grew to 16.6 per cent in the fourth quarter ended 31 March, an increase of 0.5 per cent from the previous quarter.

The GSM operator posted a 16.2 per cent in FY14, 1.3 per cent rise from the previous year, making it the best performing operator in the Indian market.

Idea witnessed YoY revenue growth of 18.6 per cent in FY14, double the growth rate of the industry which grew at 9.3 per cent.

Even on a quarterly basis, Idea's growth rate was more than double the industry growth. In the fourth quarter, when the industry grew at 2.5 per cent in revenue on a quarter-on-quarter basis, Idea Cellular's revenue grew by 5.7 per cent.

On Tuesday, Idea Cellular priced its Rs3,000-crore Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) issue at Rs134 a share, for which it had announced a floor price of Rs136.98 a share on Thursday last week. It said that the issue price was at a discount of Rs2.98 per share.

Idea Cellular said that the Securities Allotment Committee of the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on Monday decided to close the issue and approved the issuance of 22.38 crore equity shares of face value of Rs10 each to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) at an issue price of Rs134 per equity share.

This includes a premium of Rs124 per equity share, aggregating to Rs3,000 crore.

The issue had opened on 5 June 2014.