Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio will be largest telco by end of 2018: Analysts

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio can become the largest telecom company in India by the end of current year.

If the company continues to maintain its growth momentum, it will cross net revenue of its rival Bharti Airtel, said Kotak Institutional Equities Research analysts.

The analysts expect Airtel net India wireless revenues to be about Rs 87-88 Bn for second quarter FY19 whereas Jio's reported interconnected revenue of Rs 92.4 Bn. Jio will likely become number one on net revenues as early as third quarter FY19 if Bharti does not report a material beat on their estimated wireless revenues for the quarter, they noted as saying by Livemint.

Jio has in recent months shown some impressive growth in terms of adding customers.

Reliance Jio posted its consolidated net profit of Rs 9,516 crore in the September quarter, an increase of 17.4 per cent from Rs 8,109 crore in June quarter. The telecom operator added 37 million customers in the September quarter.

In the same period, it reportedly grabbed 19.6 per cent subscriber market share, going past figures of both Vodafone and Idea.

It has been reaping good rewards for its growth. In April-June FY19, the Ambani-led Jio had in third straight time posted a net profit for the fiscal first quarter. Jio standalone net profit increased 19.9 per cent in comparison with the January-March period.

This also got reflected in shares, where Jio's rivals Airtel and Vodafone witnessed the downfall of 6.2 per cent and 12.5 per cent, respectively, in value. Whereas Reliance just fell to merely 1.9 per cent.

In a year, it has gone way above its competitors, gaining about 34 per cent. The phenomenal growth is also the outcome of increased thrust on capital spend. In this year first quarter alone, Reliance has spent $2.5 billion.

Currently, Mukesh Ambani's Jio, started in 2016, has 215 million subscribers. It aims to have 400 million customers by March 2020.

Last week, it acquired cable operators Hathway and Den. It further plans to leverage them to offer a quick and affordable upgrade to a world-class lineup of JioGigaFiber and Jio Smart-Home Solutions to the 24 million existing cable connected homes of these companies across 750 cities.