Indus Towers Q4 FY25 results: net profit down 4.0% to ₹1,779 crore, revenue up 7.4%

How did Indus Towers perform in Q4 FY25?

Indus Towers reported consolidated revenue of ₹7,727 crore for Q4 FY25, up 7.4% from ₹7,193 crore in Q4 FY24 and 2.4% from ₹7,547 crore in Q3 FY25. EBITDA rose 6.2% year on year to ₹4,324 crore but fell 37.9% from ₹6,958 crore in the previous quarter. The EBITDA margin was 56.0%, compared with 56.6% a year earlier and 92.2% in Q3 FY25.

Consolidated profit before tax was ₹2,363 crore, down 5.1% from ₹2,489 crore in Q4 FY24 and 54.7% from ₹5,219 crore in Q3 FY25. Net profit was ₹1,779 crore, down 4.0% year on year and 55.6% from the previous quarter, while basic EPS declined to ₹6.75 from ₹6.88 and ₹15.18. On the standalone basis, revenue was ₹7,727 crore and profit after tax was ₹1,776 crore, against ₹1,853 crore in Q4 FY24.

The results included 10,380 macro towers and 2,226 lean co-locations acquired from Bharti Airtel during the quarter. The company accounted for the acquisition as a common-control transaction, with the filing stating that Q4 FY25 included an accounting impact of ₹183 crore for operating expenses and depreciation.

What changed in Indus Towers' costs and profit?

Total expenses rose 13.4% year on year to ₹5,456 crore from ₹4,813 crore, compared with ₹2,412 crore in Q3 FY25. Other expenses increased by ₹260.50 crore to ₹3,179 crore, finance costs by ₹233 crore to ₹359.70 crore, depreciation by ₹128.50 crore to ₹1,693 crore, and employee cost by ₹17.20 crore to ₹220.30 crore.

Other income fell ₹16.80 crore year on year to ₹91.70 crore, while tax expense declined ₹51.90 crore to ₹583.90 crore. Profit before tax decreased by ₹125.90 crore and net profit by ₹74 crore from Q4 FY24. There was no exceptional item in the quarter.

The Q3 FY25 comparison included a large receivables write-back that was not repeated at the same level. Management said Q3 included a one-time write-back of approximately Rs. 30 billion related to collection of overdue receivables, while Q4 recorded a further write-back of Rs. 2.3 billion as the customer cleared additional dues.

How did Indus Towers do in FY25 as a whole?

For FY25, Indus Towers reported consolidated revenue of ₹30,123 crore, up 5.3% from ₹28,601 crore in FY24. Total income rose 5.2% to ₹30,469 crore, while profit before tax increased 61.9% to ₹13,154 crore. Profit after tax was ₹9,932 crore, up 64.5% from ₹6,036 crore, and basic EPS rose 66.6% to ₹37.31.

The filing reported FY25 EBITDA of ₹20,845 crore, up 41.9% from the previous year, which included the benefit of overdue-receivable write-backs. Management said normalised EBITDA rose 8.5% year on year and normalised profit after tax rose 10.1%.

What do the balance sheet and cash flow show?

As of 31 March 2025, total assets were ₹63,170 crore, compared with ₹58,373 crore at 30 September 2024, while total equity was ₹32,498 crore against ₹28,399 crore. Borrowings fell to ₹2,262 crore from ₹3,951 crore, and cash rose to ₹149.70 crore from ₹25.60 crore.

Trade receivables declined to ₹4,768 crore from ₹5,629 crore, while trade payables were ₹2,445 crore against ₹2,394 crore. FY25 operating cash flow was ₹19,645 crore, compared with ₹11,582 crore in FY24; investing cash flow was negative ₹10,911 crore against negative ₹7,546 crore, and financing cash flow was negative ₹8,648 crore against negative ₹3,996 crore.

FY25 capital expenditure was ₹6,784 crore, lower than ₹8,953 crore in FY24. Closing cash in the prior-year cash-flow comparison was ₹63.10 crore.

How has Indus Towers done over the last 8 quarters?

Revenue rose in each of the last six quarters on a year-on-year basis and reached ₹7,727 crore in Q4 FY25, the highest level in the reported sequence. Profit after tax peaked at ₹4,003 crore in Q3 FY25 before falling to ₹1,779 crore in Q4 FY25, while the EBITDA margin fell from 92.2% to 56.0%.

Across the earlier quarters, the EBITDA margin ranged from 48.0% to 65.2% before rising to 92.2% in Q3 FY25 and then declining to 56.0% in Q4 FY25. Revenue continued to rise through the latest quarter, while profit and margin moved lower from the Q3 peak.

What did Indus Towers' management say?

Management said it remained confident in another year of tower and tenancy growth, with FY26 set to include a full-quarter revenue contribution from the Airtel acquisition. It also pointed to back-end-loaded maintenance capital expenditure seasonality but issued no specific quantitative guidance for FY26.

Management said the acquisition of about 12,600 towers from Bharti Airtel was completed in the final week of March 2025 and accounted for as a common-control transaction. The company reported 21,000 net co-location additions in Q4, including the acquisition, compared with 7,700 in Q3, and said tenancy additions were among the highest in its history.

The board formed a subcommittee to assess cash-distribution modalities without committing to a timeline or amount. Management identified ARPT dilution from largely single-tenancy Airtel towers, energy-margin volatility, slower data-consumption growth, the sustainability of the tenancy-growth pace and pending composite-billing rollout as risks. It said the composite billing scheme had been operationalised in 11 states.

CFO Vikas Poddar said Q3 FY25 included a one-time write-back of approximately Rs. 30 billion tied to overdue-receivable collections and that Q4 included a further Rs. 2.3 billion write-back. CEO Prachur Sah said the company was committed to distributing cash to shareholders and that the board had appointed a subcommittee to assess the modalities of distribution.

How did Indus Towers shares react?

After the filing appeared after market hours, the stock fell 2.7% within 5 minutes, 2.0% after 15 minutes and 1.4% after 30 minutes. It closed 6.9% below the previous close on the reaction day and was down 5.6% by the next day's close and 4.3% by the fifth session, measured cumulatively from the pre-results close.

On the reaction day, the median move for the other stocks in the Telecom - Services industry was down 1.0%, while the Nifty Midcap 150 was down 0.7%. Indus Towers therefore underperformed the industry median by 5.9 percentage points on the reaction day and by 6.1 percentage points by the next day's close; the difference over five sessions was 0.1 percentage points.

Earlier results-day reactions were positive 0.6% on 23 January 2025, down 3.5% on 22 October 2024, down 3.3% on 30 July 2024 and up 0.9% on 30 April 2024.