Indus Towers Limited Q2 FY23 Earnings Conference Call Insights

Key highlights from Indus Towers Limited (INDUSTOWER) Q2 FY23 Earnings Concall

Q&A Highlights:

• [00:17:55] Kunal Vora of BNP Paribas enquired how the company is looking at the revenues coming in from the 5G rollout. Vikas Poddar CFO answered that from a 5G perspective, the initial revenue from 5G is going to come from loading of 5G equipment on the existing sites. INDUSTOWER is seeing a positive development on its revenue in the coming quarters.

• [00:19:58] Tanay Shah from Dolat Capital enquired about the reason for the recent NCD fund raise of INR2,000 crores. Vikas Poddar CFO replied that it is driven by a requirement the company has from a regulator wherein it’s classified as a large corporate and is required to comply with the provision of raising minimum 25% of incremental long-term borrowing by way of debt securities.

• [00:22:38]  Falguni Dutta from Jet Age Securities enquired about the differential in revenues from rentals of INR4,780 crores and gross revenue of INR7,960. Vikas Poddar CFO replied that there are two revenues; one from rentals and second is the energy revenue. The difference between the two lines is the energy revenue.

• [00:26:43] Pranav Kshatriya with Nuvama asked about how should one see the energy margin trending. Vikas Poddar CFO said that energy margin in 2Q23 is positive because of the deferred recognition. INDUSTOWER said it’s trying its best to drive a reduction in diesel which will have a huge bearing on the margin gaps.

• [00:41:18] Ravi Agarwal from UTI AMC asked about the accounting policy the company is looking to adopt. Vikas Poddar CFO answered that the company doesn’t have any change in its accounting policy. INDUSTOWER deferred the recognition to be sure about the collection.

• [00:51:56] Arun Prasath with Spark Capital asked about the receivables going forward. Vikas Poddar CFO answered that by Dec. 2022, the receivables should peak out and post that it will decrease based on the payment plan.

• [00:52:40] Arun Prasath with Spark Capital enquired about the cumulative leaner towers count. Vikas Poddar CFO said in 2Q23 the leaner towers is close to 1,500. In 1Q23, it was 1,000. The base of lean towers is in a little over 3,000.