Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Sunita, the moderator for this conference. Welcome to the Indus Towers Limited second quarter ended September 30, 2023 earnings call. For the duration of the presentation, all participants' lines will be in listen-only mode. After the presentation, the question and answer session will be conducted for all the participants on this call. In case of a natural disaster, the conference call will be terminated through an announcement. Present with us on the call today is the senior leadership team of Indus Towers. Before I hand over the call, I must remind you that the overview and discussion today will include certain forward-looking statements that must be viewed in conjunction with the risks that we face. I now hand over the call to our first speaker of the day, Mr. Prachur Sah, MD and CEO. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Sah.
Thank you, and a very warm welcome to all participants. Joining me today are my colleagues, Mr. Vikas Poddar, CFO, Mr. Tejinder Kalra, COO, and Mr. Dheeraj Agarwal, Head, Investor Relations, on the call. I am pleased to present our business performance for the quarter ended September 30, 2023. To begin with, we are pleased to have further built upon our strong operational performance in the previous quarters. Driven by robust demand from one of our major customers, particularly in rural areas, our tower additions during Q2 were the highest ever. On the collection front from one of our major customers, it continued in Q2 as well. Before going into detail about the key aspects of our business, I would like to express gratitude to our teams on the ground for their commitment and dedication towards helping Indus Towers drive digital inclusivity for all.
During the quarter, our team of bravehearts installed solar-powered towers in the Siachen Base Camp, which is at an altitude of 17,000 feet above sea level, is one of the most remote and isolated regions in the country. The team is also actively facilitating the rapid tower additions in the under-penetrated areas of rural India by one of our major customers, thereby enabling connectivity for all. The government is also doing its bit to enhance connectivity in remote areas by working towards improving the backhaul infrastructure in these areas. The government remains steadfast in its commitment to facilitate the swift rollout of telecom infrastructure across the nation, while keeping sustainability in view. To this end, the Ministry of Power has notified the Green Open Access Policy, and a few states have already adopted the same with minor amendments.
The government is also engaged in discussions with multiple stakeholders for faster implementation of Green Open Access at the ground level. These steps, aimed at incentivizing the use of cleaner sources of energy, reiterate the government's focus on infrastructure expansion in a sustainable way. With regards to 5G, rollouts by the top two operators continue to progress at a swift pace, with these operators now catering to over 50 million 5G customers each. The total number of 5G-based transceiver stations or BTS deployed stands at almost 340,000, with more than 7,000 BTS being deployed per week in August. Our loading revenues have continued to increase in view of this accelerated deployment of 5G on our sites. As the network matures, we expect the demand for new sites to increase in order to aid the network decongestion.
That bodes well for us, given our leadership position in the passive infrastructure space. Statistics mentioned in the Ericsson Mobility Report reaffirm the growth potential of 5G. As per the report, global 5G subscriptions grew by 175 million in the June quarter, compared to the 125 million additions in the March quarter, and have reached almost 1.3 billion. The 5 billion mark is expected to be reached by end of 2028, with 5G subscriptions in India is also expected to reach 700 million by the same time. Also, the emergence of use cases of 5G, such as launch of Fixed Wireless Access or FWA by major operators, will also drive the data consumption, which will need infrastructure.
The data consumption story in the country continues to play out well, underpinned by continued migration of users from 2G to 4G and the swift adoption of 5G. The total data consumption across the top three operators grew by 24% year-on-year in the June quarter, and the average data consumed per users per month grew by 15% year-on-year to 22.4 GB in the same period. We firmly believe that the burgeoning data consumption, in conjunction with the rapid uptake of 5G, will provide a boost to the demand for passive infrastructure. Being the largest passive infrastructure player in the country, we remain well-placed to address the demand. Moving on to the operational performance for Q2. As highlighted earlier, we have surpassed our record tower additions reported in Q1.
We managed to achieve this despite the harsh weather conditions usually witnessed during this time of the year. Driven by continued strong demand from one of our customers, we added 5,928 micro towers and 5,583 corresponding co-locations. Total micro towers and co-locations at the end of Q2 stood at 204,212 and 353,462, respectively, which represents a significant milestone for Indus when we crossed 200,000 micro towers. Each growing by 8.7% and 4.5% on year-on-year basis, our industry-leading tenancy ratio stands at 1.73. Addition of co-locations on Lean towers remained healthy at 789 in Q2, and the overall base increased to 8,643 co-locations.
Including Lean towers, our net colocation additions were at 6,372 in Q2, as against 5,984 in Q1. Next, I would like to bring you up to speed on the progress we have made on our four key strategic points, namely, market share, cost efficiency, network uptime, and sustainability. Firstly, on market share, we are pleased to see that the digital interventions undertaken across our value chain, coupled with organizational changes to ensure a faster time to market of our sites, continue to bear fruit for us. We have further strengthened our partner ecosystem and simplified our internal processes to smoothen the workflow. The run rate of our quarterly tenancy additions has nearly doubled on a year-on-year basis, thereby helping us increase our share in the business of our major customer.
We expect the rural expansion of our major customer to continue in the near term, which augurs well for us, as we possess the capabilities to match our customers stride for stride in its rollouts. Secondly, on cost efficiency, we continue to take steps towards optimizing both operating and capital expenses. We have been consistently reducing our diesel consumption and recorded an 8% year-on-year reduction in Q2. Please note that such a significant reduction was achieved despite an increase in overall energy load from the addition of new sites and 5G equipment. During the quarter, we were especially pleased to have signed an agreement with IOC Phinergy to deploy clean energy systems. We have agreed to deploy 300 zero-emission energy systems based on aluminum-air technology to optimize diesel consumption at our telecom tower sites.
We have also added more than 2,200 solar sites during the quarter and continue to convert tower sites from indoor to outdoor, which aided the overall energy cost optimization. Our sharp focus on reducing the rental cost per tower through negotiation, site selection, and product selection to minimize footprint has also yielded positive results. On CapEx, our initiatives are directed towards driving cost efficiencies across processes, including designing, procurement, and erection, through use of automation and digital interventions. This has helped for us to build towers that are cost competitive. Thirdly, on network uptime, which reflects robustness and resilience of our system and also a key requirement of our customers, we are maintaining a high level of uptime of 99.96%, despite the increase in weather disruptions.
Due to the changing climatic conditions, the number of instances of significant weather events in Q2 of this year were more than 1.5 times those in the same period last year. Amid the heavy rains, thunderstorms, and lightning in areas of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, our field forces persevered to deliver such a high network uptime. On the roadmap for digital transformation, we established a connectivity solution in 4 circles during the quarter. We will use the learnings from these circles to complete the implementation of real-time telemetry data system in the remaining circles. Shifting focus to ESG, a vital aspect of the business that we continue to make steady progress in. On the environment front, we continue to make strides in our journey towards reducing our GHG emissions.
As highlighted earlier, our tie-up with IOC Phinergy and initiatives towards adoption of renewable energy solutions would help us reduce our consumption of diesel and grid electricity. Out of more than 2,200 solar sites added in Q2 2021, 2,127 sites in Rajasthan run entirely on solar power. This is a testimony to company's commitment to build eco-friendly telecom tower sites by investing in clean energy solutions. The company is also committed to reducing emissions from its value chain and is working towards tying up with electric vehicle cab aggregators for its employees' travel. With regards to social dimension, the improvement in our gender diversity during the quarter was quite satisfying for us. Driven by our focused hiring programs, policy interventions, and top-down approach, our gender diversity has reached close to 10% over the quarter. Ensuring the safety of our field force is paramount, important to us.
We have been conducting trainings and awareness programs to inculcate a behavioral change with our field force to address certain aspects, such as safe driving, appropriate use of safety gear, hazard reporting, etc. We continue to evaluate our top value chain partners on various ESG parameters during onboarding and collaborate with them to improve their sustainability practices and disclosures. I would now request Vikas to take you through our financial performance for the quarter ended September 30, 2023, and I look forward to your questions. Over to you, Vikas. Thank you.
Thank you, Prachur, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to share with you all the financial results for the quarter ended 30th September 2023. Before I apprise you of our financial performance, I would briefly touch upon our robust operational performance. In Q2, we managed to improve upon the record tower additions in Q1, adding a total of 6,332 co-locations, including those on I-Lean towers. We expect the rural expansion of one of our major customers to continue in the near term. This, coupled with the measures we are taking to improve our share of the customer's rollout, should help us continue the momentum. Now moving on to our financial performance for Q2, FY 2024.
Our reported gross revenues declined by 10.5% year-on-year to INR 71.3 billion, whereas the core revenues from rental declined by 9.3% year-on-year to INR 43.4 billion. Please note that Q2 of last year included the benefit of deferred recognition of revenues arising from the settlement of old dues with our customers, which amounted to INR 11 billion in gross revenues and INR 5.5 billion in core revenues. After adjusting for the deferred recognition of revenue, our gross revenues and core revenues were up 3.5% and 1.2% respectively, year-on-year basis. The Q2 FY 2024 revenues were impacted by the non-recognition of revenue equalization assets for one of our major customers.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, our reported gross revenue and core revenue from rentals were up by 0.8% and 0.1% respectively. Our reported EBITDA increased by 22.9% year-on-year and declined by 1.6% quarter-on-quarter to INR 34.6 billion. EBITDA margins were up 13.2 percentage points year-on-year and down 1.2 percentage point quarter-on-quarter to 48.5%. Please note that the EBITDA figures of Q2 FY 2023 included an impact of provision for doubtful debts of INR 17.7 billion. Adjusted for the impact of the provision for doubtful debts and deferred recognition, EBITDA increased by 1.2% year-on-year and was flat quarter-on-quarter. Energy margins stood at minus 2.1% in Q2, FY 2024.
We believe that the initiatives we are taking to reduce our diesel consumption will help us improve our energy margins. Our reported profit after tax grew by 48% year-on-year and declined by 4% quarter-on-quarter to INR 12.9 billion. The adjusted profit after tax was down by 1.5% year-on-year and 1% quarter-on-quarter. A meaningful increase in depreciation due to rapid rollouts and a change in accounting treatment of asset life had a dampening effect on the net profit. Our reported pre-tax return on capital employed and post-tax return on equity for the rolling twelve months stood at 14% and 15.1% respectively. Free Cash Flow for the quarter was at -INR 10.33 billion, which was impacted by a combination of increase in receivables and the elevated CapEx of INR 23 billion.
As we had intimated in the previous quarters, the increase in CapEx is on account of strong tenancy additions we are seeing from the swift rollouts by one of our major customers. The company's prompt response by investing in this opportunity will yield long-term benefits for its shareholders. Our receivables increased by INR 8.8 billion during the quarter due to delay in payment from one of our customers. I would like to highlight that this amount has already been cleared in the current month. Additionally, we remain in active discussions with the customer for clearance of its past dues and are keeping a keen eye on the customer's fundraise plans. In summary, our continued robust operational performance is satisfying and is a testament to the capabilities we possess as one of the leading passive infrastructure players.
We firmly believe that the progress we are making in each of our strategic priorities will drive growth and generate value for our shareholders over the period. Improvement in collections this year has helped our financial performance, while the accelerated 5G rollouts and rural expansion by one of our major customers, which serve as significant levers of our growth. I would now request the moderator open the floor for question and answers.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer interactive session for all the participants who are connected to audio conference service, are waiting. Due to time constraints, we would request if you could limit the number of questions to two, to enable more participation. Hence, manager will take only two questions per participant to ensure maximum participation. Participants who wish to ask questions, need please press star one on their touchtone enabled telephone keypad. On pressing star one, participants will get a chance to present their questions on first in line basis. To ask a question, participants need please press star one now.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Just two questions. So, as far as Vodafone, as far as the customer, from whom the receivables increased during the current quarter, because I noted that you mentioned that this receivable has been cleared. What about the past dues, some of which have been written off? Where are your discussions going on, in that regard? And secondly, related to this same customer, how do you see the ability of this customer to sustain payments, for the remainder of fiscal 2024, and hence your ability to pay dividends for fiscal 2024? Thank you.
maybe, Vikas, you can add. I'll just summarize this payment situation. While the customer had some challenges during the quarter, but we have received the monthly payments in October from them. Our expectations is that the monthly payment would continue, and we'll continue to charge as per the MSA to the same customer. We are currently working with them on creating a robust time-bound plan to avoid the past dues.
Just want to correct that there's nothing in written off, I think.
Yeah. J ust to elaborate, I think, first of all, Vivekanand, we have provided, as we had explained in the previous quarters as well, to de-risk our balance sheet, we have not written off any receivable. We are in a very active engagement. A s Prachur was saying, you know, we have received the payment subsequently, and those delays have been cleared now. And we do expect the 100% or the near 100% payment to continue going forward. There are basically some positive developments. As we all know, there was a hump of, you know, some financial commitment that they had in the previous quarter, but that hump is pretty much over. So we do expect the near 100% payment to sort of continue.
As far as the past dues are concerned, once again, I mean, while we all know that there is a bit of dependency on the funding, fundraising of the plan, et cetera, but we are again monitoring that very closely. We are in touch with the customer and trying to work on that, on that settlement as well. So as and when we have more clarity, we will certainly keep updating you.
Okay, thank you. This is helpful. Just one follow-up. INR 13 billion that increased the receivables, INR 13 billion, that increase in 1H. Are you confirming that in October, this amount also has been cleared by the customer? R elated point is the provision, or the receivables provision that was made, the provision for doubtful debtors in first half, INR 2.2 billion. What was this regarding?
First of all, let me clarify. The INR 13 billion is, you know, it's a mixed bag. There are various things, but, the amount pertaining to this particular customer has been cleared subsequently. The provision basically, relates to the fact that there are always, you know, some timing issues, some ongoing reconciliation issues, and also the fact that we are collecting some interest, et cetera. I n terms of the accounting, we follow a very stringent ECL, sort of, computation. And as a result, we have provided for doubtful debts, in this quarter to the extent of about INR 1.3 billion. But that's as per our current accounting treatment. I can confirm that we have subsequently received the amount that was delayed.
All right. Thanks. I think you didn't answer my question on the dividend, or the likelihood of investors getting a dividend in fiscal 2024, in light of the reality as far as the payments are concerned.
Okay. Vivekanand, I think as far as the dividend is concerned, as we have always explained, our dividend policy is linked to our Free Cash Flow generation. O ur dividend policy requires us to distribute 100% of our Free Cash Flow. Currently, as you know from our results, our CapEx is elevated, as we are investing in growth to generate those long-term returns. We are also ensuring that the collection against our monthly billing is managed well and our working capital situation is managed well. We are working with the customer to also create a robust payment or settlement plan for the past dues, as Prachur was mentioning.
Based on the Free Cash Flow situation at the end of the year, which we keep assessing every quarter as well, management along with the board will certainly take a decision, and we will basically see where we stand at the end of the year.
Okay, thank you for the elaborate explanation. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Subbaraman. Participants who wish to ask questions, may please press star one on their touch-tone enabled telephone keypad. Next question comes from Mr. Sanjesh Jain, from ICICI Securities, Mumbai. Mr. Jain, you may ask your question now.
Yeah. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I've got a few of them. First one, the rental per month that has declined sequentially while we are adding a lot more single tenancy, which has a much higher rental than the base one. As well as we are, we are adding a lot more loading, IT loading, particularly for the data. The combined effect should have been a steady increase in the rentals. Can you help me understand why, why has it dropped sequentially this time around?
Yeah. T hanks for the question, Sanjesh. F irst of all, I think your observation is right. We have basically seen a slight drop in our average revenue per tenancy or the ARPT. w hile the underlying business growth continues as a result of the extra loading and tower rollouts and so on, we have had some transactions related to customers, where we deferred the recognition of revenue in this quarter. There is no cash flow impact of the same, and as a result, we have seen some decline in this quarter. O n an underlying basis, the quarter-on-quarter sequential growth pretty much continues to be the same, in line with what we've seen in the previous quarter.
Is it fair to assume that the revenue will get recognized next quarter, and we will have some one-off kind of a gain, which will offset this decline of this quarter?
This is basically a matter under discussion. We are still evaluating our position, and, hopefully, we'll be able to close and conclude this in the current quarter. If a t this point of time, till we have concluded, it's very difficult to comment.
Fair enough, sir. Now, but, but generally, revenue recognition, we have a very stable MSC.... Now, why has this situation arise?
Well, you're right. I mean, it is a stable MSA, but we do keep having evolutions in terms of products and in terms of, you know, some terms and conditions, and so on. W hile the core MSA is stable, you're right, but you know, as and when we have these evolutions, there are some changes, and we are sort of having some transaction on which we are still concluding the treatment.
Very much. My second question is on the tower addition. The first half has been a very strong uptick. How does the order book looks like for the second half? Will it be same? Because Airtel has said in the earnings call that by November, December, it appears that the rural expansion will largely be behind. That means, starting next calendar year, there could be a deceleration in the way Airtel is really about the rural expansion. Does it appear in your order book?
So, Sanjesh, you know, in the near term, our order books look, looks quite healthy. I'm expecting similar sort of rollouts, probably slightly higher than this current quarter in the next couple of quarters. I n the near term, I don't see the order book reducing. If there's any change, we'll let you know, but as of now, the order book remains quite strong in the near term.
Got it. Got it. The next question is on the lean towers. Now, that uptake looks much lower than probably what we have anticipated, expected. Is that the telcos are more focused today on the macro expansion and lean tower expansion will play a role more when they are looking at expanding the capacity or infill sites?
Yes, Sanjesh, I mean, to be honest, I think, yes, there has been a mix change compared to last year. So I think, but as you said, I think the situation would keep evolving as we go. I think this quarter was much stronger on macro compared to Lean. T he things may evolve as we go forward, but that's a fair observation.
Any more insight why the Lean has not been? Because this has been one of the asks by the operators in terms of the infill sites, micro sites, or but the uptake looks much below expectation.
Sanjesh, this is Tejinder. T ypically, the lean sites, the customers are using as infill or wherever there are any coverage gaps in the urban areas and so on. D epending upon how the operator wants to either go for rural geographic coverage or capacity build in some of the urban areas, this mix continues to change and evolve. W e, we are obviously currently building up as the customer demands us to build sites and wherever they want to focus first. Thi s mix will keep on shifting to that order. w e don't see from an order book perspective, a big scale down in the demand of either kind of sites. It's just that the rollouts keep getting shifted depending upon where the operator wants to focus, you know, in a particular quarter.
Got it. Got it. One last quick question. Vikas, you mentioned that there has been some change in the useful life of assets, which has increased the depreciation and amortization number. Which of these assets are more to do with the batteries, DC sides, where are we seeing this acceleration or a change in the useful life?
I'm sorry, Sanjesh, could you just repeat the last line? I didn't get the last line clearly.
Which are the assets where we have done a change in useful life? It is more to do with the battery, DC side.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Got it. Basically, this is again annual review process that we have to assess the useful life. As part of the process, we have assessed the useful life of all the power equipment. That includes the battery, the rectifier modules, and all the other power equipment. That basically has resulted in a change from 10 to 8 years. That has created some one-time impact in depreciation. That's the change that has happened.
Got it. Got it. That is clear. Just one more quick-
I just want to highlight that it's a non-cash, because it's basically a change in the useful life, so it's a non-cash impacting item.
No, but, my, my thing was that now that the EV availability in India has improved, that should have actually positive impact because, the DC side or battery, the life is more on the cycle they run, and the cycle would have come down, and so the useful life would have gone up. The reduction is quite contradicting.
No, that's a fair point. The thing is, when we do this reassessment, we look at the data points, and we have certainly considered the data for the last 12 months in terms of what is the replacement cycle, et cetera. There is a fair obsolescence that we have noticed, despite the EV situation improving. I think, 8 years is not really out of norm. It's pretty much the norm, if you look at other industries as well, when it comes to DGs or other power equipment. So I think, the 10 years was probably a bit different from the reality, so we have sort of readjusted now.
Got it. Clear. Thanks, thanks for that answer, and best wishes for the coming quarters.
Thank you, Mr. Jain. Participants who wish to ask questions, may please press star one. The next question comes from Mr. Arun Prasad from Avendus Spark, Chennai. Mr. Prasad, you may ask your question now.
Thanks. Thank you very much.
Mr. Prasad, you may ask your question. The next question comes from Mr. Sanket Baheti from GeeCee Holdings , Mumbai. Mr. Bahati, you may ask your question now.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. W hat is the CapEx that we are building in for the full year? W hat's the CapEx requirement for a lean tower versus a macro tower? W hat are the return ratios we are targeting for a macro tower versus a lean tower?
Thank you for the question, Sanket. I mean, as far as the CapEx for the full year is concerned, I think Prachur did mention that the order book is quite healthy, and we do expect the rollout momentum to continue. I think from that perspective, the CapEx will remain elevated for some time. As far as the CapEx requirement for a Lean and a macro tower is concerned, I think first of all, I just want to sort of make you aware that the towers are not really homogeneous. There are different varieties of towers, and depending on the type of macro tower or the type of Lean Tower that we are building, the CapEx profile and the return profile could be very different.
I'll try to give a very generic answer. So, a lean tower could be anywhere between, let's say, you know, INR 3 to 3.5 to 5 lakh rupees, and a macro tower could be anywhere between INR 15-25 lakh rupees, sort of. I t's a very wide range because of depending on the type of towers that we are building. T ypically, in terms of return, with lean towers, our return profile is slightly better. I would say probably somewhere around mid-double digit. W ith macro, it usually, depending on the tenancy, it would start with maybe a single digit, and if the tenancy improves, then we even see double-digit returns there.
Okay, sir. Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you, Mr. Bahati. At this moment, I would like to hand over the call proceedings to Mr. Prachur Sah for the final remarks.
Thank you. To sum up, we are pleased to have maintained a stronger tower addition momentum in Q2 as well. We expect the accelerated rural expansion of our major customers to continue in the near term, which, coupled with the 5G rollouts, augur well for us, given our leadership position in the passive infrastructure space. We endeavor to ride this growth journey in a sustainable way and create value for all our stakeholders, including shareholders, customers, and partners. I wish to thank you all for joining this call. Have a good day.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for connecting to our audio conference service from Google, and have a pleasant day to you.