Indus Towers Ltd
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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2019-Q2

from 0
Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am Kamaldeep, the moderator for this conference. Welcome to the Bharti Infratel Limited Second Quarter ended September 30, 2018, Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Present with us on the call today is the senior leadership team of Bharti Infratel Limited. Before I hand over the call, I must remind you that the overview and discussions today may 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. Akhil Gupta. Thank you, and over to you Mr. Gupta.

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

Thank you. Thanks for joining us on this earnings call for the quarter ended 30th September 2018. One of the big highlights of the quarter for the Indian telecom industry was the approval granted by the Union Cabinet through the National Digital Communication Policy of 2018. This, as you would have noted, is a forward-looking policy, which provides a good road map for the next level of growth and development of Indian telecommunication sector. For companies engaged in telecom infrastructure, the policy has a number of positive developments such as enhanced scope of IP-1s to our foreign activity infrastructure, according to telecom infrastructure, the status of critical and essential infrastructure at par with what is given to the electronic telecom infrastructure, facilitating fiber-to-the-tower program to enable connecting at least 60% telecom towers on fiber and promoting collaborative models for provision of shared mass infrastructure. These will further incentivize industry participants to share infrastructure and help us transition from largely a Tower Co. to a broad-based telecom infrastructure provider. The [province] commitment to 5G as mentioned at NBCD and at various international forums, these developments augur very well for infrastructure provider telecoms. A key development for the company as given in the press release is [largely state] that subsequent to the completion of Vodafone-Idea merger, both Infratel and Indus Towers have now received exit notices, which have resulted in exits of approximately 28,000 co-locations on a consolidated basis for Infratel and approximately 55,000 overall. Now this very clearly puts this uncertainty behind us. While the exits are being worked out, on a consolidated basis, the exit penalties from the ongoing operators should be in the vicinity of about INR 1,500 crores, which will enable to settle in the combination of cash that should be a significant portion and the balance by the way of committed future revenues under a combination of either new co-location commitments in the next 9 to 12 months or extension of contracts by another 5 years. We hope to finalize these and close before the end of the current quarter. With other operators who have exited earlier, we are pursuing the matters legally. As I mentioned, the uncertainty on exits now has been laid to rest. With the consolidation in this sector behind us, the stage is now set for rapid rollout of 4G. But, for instance, you would have noted media reports on Voda-Idea are now getting ready to place large orders on [ equipment ]. Union government has also indicated that the spectrum auction for 5G could take place in 2019/20. Introduction of 5G would further enhance demand for new sites, which would be in very large numbers due to higher bands of spectrum for 5G. The merger process at the Indus Towers is proceeding satisfactorily. We have already got permission from CCI and SEBI and have filed the first motion petition before NCLT. We do hope to close this by around March 2019. Coming to operational parameters. The consolidated targets of 30th September stood at INR 92,123, with co-locations declining by 20.7% year-on-year with a factor of 1.89 at closing. Against the backdrop of this massive 21% up in co-locations, our financial performance has been quite robust. For instance, consolidated revenue, service revenue, declined only by 6% year-on-year. EBITDA by 8%, EBIT declined by 9% and net profit declined only by 6% year-on-year at INR 6 million. The ROC pretax and ROE posttax remained healthy at approximately 34% and 16% respectively. The board yesterday declared an interim dividend of INR 7.50 by share for the financial year '18/'19. To conclude, we remain optimistic on the Tower Industry and the demand in future. We believe the structure in the industry is [not] right. Network densification is the need of the hour. And as the operators focus on delivering high speed and high-quality 4G services across the country, we believe the demand was for down structure and for further demand coming by the 5G by 2020, will make the overall demand a robust proposition. This will, of course, entail bigger investments, which will necessitate collaboration and sharing, which is the backbone of our business model. With the uncertainty about the co-location behind us, we are looking to some robust and strong growth henceforth. Before I hand the call back to the moderator and open the floor for questions, I would like to introduce S. Balasubramanian, popularly known as Bala, who has recently taken over as CFO from Pankaj Miglani. Thank you.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Mr. Sachin Salgaonkar from Bank of America, Mumbai.

S
Sachin Shrikant Salgaonkar
Director

My 2 questions are number one, I think I just wanted to understand the timing of when this INR 1,500 crores could hit the P&L in terms of revenue. And will all that impact general due to EBITDA or there is a bit of room out there in terms of cost control? Second question, clearly, we're seeing data on the ground picking up. And clearly with data, the fiber needs also rises. But we are not seeing major sharing in terms of fiber. Any thoughts on [ basically ] created Indus infrastructure operating out sort of a similar entity at a fiber level?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

So Sachin, that was the -- but first, let me try and take this. In terms of INR 1,500 crores, firstly, the revenue recognition principle that we've said in the past for all the exits is based on the actual payment. We are also looking at seeing if there is part adjustment towards cash and part adjustments towards mutual business as Akhil mentioned. And if that was to happen, obviously this will get straight-lined over a period of time and should get recognized as additional revenue and as additional business, as and when that gets settled. From a timing of settlement, we are hoping that we have the settlement before we come back for the next result announcement. So we will have more concrete details then on how exactly and what is exactly signed with operators there. On your second question on data picking up in fiber, as the industry Infratel, definitely created Smart Cities where we are looking at interest from various governmental authorities and also private operators. On sharing of fiber assets, this is in the operator domain right now and we are competing with each other and looking at wherever bilateral kind of sharing. So what Tower was way back in 2006 and '07, we see fiber at about the same stage. And there are some bilateral arrangements of sharing, but on a very selective basis between the operators. Will this pick up? Yes, going forward there will be. And we also understand that large operators are in the process of having lost their Tower fiber assets so that they can monetize or create models like Indus.

S
Sachin Shrikant Salgaonkar
Director

This is helpful. One small follow-up question is, these Idea, Vodafone exits coming out, are these largely behind us? Or we could hear about more exits in next 12 months or at some point in future?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

So for us, large part of it is already done. In terms of exits that were supposed to come between Voda and Idea and both Indus and Infratel.

S
Sachin Shrikant Salgaonkar
Director

Large part in the sense, that is a small part will happen later?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

There are permitted exits that are part of contracts with operators as and when they optimize their network. Minus that, as I said, on account of mergers, a large part that is supposed to happen is already done. And we think with this pretty much all the consolidations related to merger or with operators exiting is all played out in the numbers now.

Operator

The next question comes from Mr. Manish Adukia from Goldman Sachs, Mumbai.

M
Manish Adukia
Equity Analyst

I have 2 questions. Firstly, can you just talk about the gross tenancy addition trends? When do you expect that to start picking up? Do you expect Vodafone-Idea to contribute to that number at all going forward? Then what was the behavior from other customers like Bharti and Jio? And when does the loading phase in your view end and new entities start coming? That's my first question. And second question is similar to the first question that I asked earlier. Any meaningful role that Bharti Infratel is playing or could potentially play for small cell deployment in other parts of the country, could that be a viable sharing model in your view?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

On gross additions that we're seeing, if you looked at the numbers, there is a little bit of uptake on the new towers being built out. There are a few towers also being built under USO by operators. You're also aware of Jio doing -- having plans of rolling out aggressively as they move forward. So we do expect things to pick up. In terms of your question of saying how and when, Voda-Idea will do that specific to them. They are going through a merger process. We are seeing accelerated pace of 4G deployment and cabinet expansion in our [indiscernible]. And increasingly, that number for the leading operator is tending more towards the 90% of the size. For the operators that are trailing, we see them doing a catch-up too on account of the big growth that we're seeing on broadband customers and their usage too. And these numbers, you can see that there is a small bit of increase, and we think from hereon, it will accelerate. The fact that Jio wants to do close to about 300,000 sites is known. Service quality improvement is a focus area, now that most of the consolidation is played out. Their major customer-gaining strategy would be around certainly different location and for which they will have to add higher number of sites once they have done 4G on their entire existing site. So we think this will help us gain larger share given our largest footprint that we have between Indus and Infratel across the country. On Voda-Idea, let's say at post their rationalization and Akhil did mention there are media newsrooms, which are talking about the vendor finalization, we do expect once that is done, the merger entity will start to roll out and do the catch-up to stay as #1 in areas where they've not rolled out so far. On your question of small cell, we have already deployed both in Indus and Infratel various types of small cell-ers, including on poles on Metro railway track and so on and so forth that you might be able to see in metros, primarily towards creating a shared model. We believe there is a sharing model available for small cell, where the ground rate for sharing itself could mean meaningful part for the operator. But that is subject to 2 critical areas: One is availability of power and second is fiber. We think that'll play catalyst role in terms of accelerating small cell deployment in this country. We are working closely with operators, and Smart City is a great opportunity to showcase some of these products where we're using street furniture to provide better coverage to the citizens. We think these shared models of small [cell] will be the way to grow in country like India where there is so much of high sensitivity to the end customer and the tariffs are so low. And we think this is a scalable model and more in preparation of 5G, more than 4G today, we still think there is macro growth to come on 4G. And before 5G comes in, small [cell] will be there as stable products and will cater for the large numbers that 5G are starting to cover in those high frequency bands.

M
Manish Adukia
Equity Analyst

Couple of just quick follow-ups. So I think in the past you've mentioned that once operators reach fully existing towers with loading, they would come out with new bands, are you saying that now operators have reached the stage where loading was largely done, so new entities should start coming in? Second follow-up question is on Jio when you mentioned, are you still seeing incremental entries from them or building in a meaningful manner from them because they have in the past continue to mention that they're building their own towers, but are you seeing them deploy with you also in an aggressive manner?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

So as I mentioned earlier, we are seeing leading operators in the leading circles to reach those high 90% in terms of 4G deployment on their existing sites. Heading towards that 100% on all existing sites. Once that is done, we do expect them to start adding sites. And I did mention, we are seeing a small uptick in the new site build out, which was pretty dormant for some time. We expect this to pick up from here on. For the trailing operators -- and when I say trailing in the particular circle because the 1, 2, 3 position changes there -- there is still a huge amount of headroom in terms of 4G deployment, given that they've not fully deployed all the spectrum brands that they won for 4G. So we are seeing that still continue. We are in fact seeing still an accelerated pace of 4G station deployment on the existing sites by all the operators. Your question on specific on Jio, Jio traditionally has built sites on their own. It's a known thing that they declared. Whatever sites they're offering for sharing, we think we continue to gain on our market share on whatever is offered for sharing and we continue to focus on whatever is coming in as sharing numbers from Jio too.

Operator

The next question comes from Mr. Kunal Vora from BNP Paribas, Mumbai.

K
Kunal Vora
Analyst

First question, have you received any exit penalties in the first half, especially Tata, Telenor at least with -- while Vodafone-Idea, you might still be in talks with? But for the earlier ones have you received something? And second, why would you, like, settle for a new business or extension of contract in your exit penalties? Why not just introduce some cash? That's first question, if you can. And second one, I also wanted to understand like the pricing, because would the pace of green initiative, electrification of towers increase? And your energy costs, what will be the contribution of diesel versus electricity? That's it.

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

On the first one, very clearly, we are in the business of helping our customers grow business. And therefore, from our point of view, if we can get committed business for future, that's always a much better proposition than getting some lump sum cash in one go. It doesn't serve our business interest. But yes, certainly, there will be a combination of the 2. And we are very happy making sure that there will be more business coming to us. On Tata, I think it's a small amount. It's just being finalized. On your question on green initiatives and on energy costs, the split is very different depending on where you're looking at. Metros, obviously, the great electricity is better where diesel consumption is low. Rural parts, again, when you go and the great availability is poor and hence vice versa. There is a concentrated focus on the company side to make sure that we reduce diesel every year and those projects are going on track both in terms of our green sites that we're trying to build in, diesel-free sites, and in fact, some of the small [sale] and new products that we're creating are sites without diesel generator itself. And hence, we'll try and continue on that journey of making sure that we are reducing overall diesel consumption in the network, given the current improvement initiated by the government of India is also taken. That will also help in making sure that we accelerate the pace of green deployment in our circles.

K
Kunal Vora
Analyst

Okay, okay. So would the energy cost from your towers would it be very different compared to what Jio might be spending on its Towers? Would you be able to comment on that?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

It's difficult because these data is not on the public domain too, but in the circles where we operate for a given loan, the energy cost and the funds from the loans that is there and the great availability in that particular area. And if they're operating on a similar area, we do not expect these to be significantly different too.

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

Yes, they can't be significantly different. But it depends if something is in a big city versus a remote area, naturally the cost will be different.

K
Kunal Vora
Analyst

Sure. And lastly, in your revenue base currently, what will be the contribution of loading? Would you be able to quantify that?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

Sorry, we haven't given that in the public domain yet. So I'll not be able to comment on that Kunal.

Operator

The next question comes from Mr. Srinivas Rao from Deutsche Bank, Singapore.

S
Srinivas Rao
Research Analyst

Two questions. First is, if I look at the impact for Infratel on a stand-alone basis and if I break it out, the impact seems to be much larger for Indus much approximately 20% of their tendencies, whereas, Indus has been almost approximately 10%, this is based on your disclosures. And also it seems that Indus has seen an increase in the sharing revenue, which is what you would expect, but Infratel on a stand-alone basis also. Just trying to understand why is there the divergence in these trends? That will be my first question. Second, in your opening remarks you mentioned something about targeting the critical infrastructure labor and that helping the fiber -- can you -- and the IP-1 license been changed, can you just elaborate on that, that will be really very helpful?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

So let me take up the second one first. I think what the national digital communication policy says that in context of safety of the infrastructure created, they will treat it as essential infrastructure, which is a big thing for us. Because what happens with that is, if that comes through, that all the set of [ settle that ] anybody coming and saying, shut this site, that goes. With certain closures of sites cannot be done. So it's more with respect to safety rather than any financial incentive.

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

On your first question, I did not get the exact question there, in terms of sharing revenue trends on a standalone basis, I don't see divergent trends on the numbers unless we're seeing some of the numbers there.

S
Srinivas Rao
Research Analyst

So, again, you disclosed Bharti Infratel standalone Tower co-location and then you gave Indus numbers also. So if I look at for the quarter on a standalone basis, Infratel's sharing revenue per Tower per month, that number has gone down from 84,000 to 82,000.

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

No, in both it has gone down. That is per Tower you're referring, it's gone down on both -- if your question is if it's more on Indus versus Infratel, that is because Voda-Idea had right of first refusal in Indus and that's why you could see a small amount. So the trend is not divergent. It's the line. It's just the impact is slightly higher in Indus than Infratel.

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

More or less in the same lines.

S
Srinivas Rao
Research Analyst

And the loss of penalties being relatively higher for Indus. Is that also?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

True. And hence, the numbers.

Operator

The next question comes from Mr. Vivekanand Subbaraman from AMBIT Capital, Mumbai.

V
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Media Analyst

The first question is on your core operating margins on rental revenue, excluding energy. That didn't decline much, and it stood at 65% despite the revenue intensity drop. What were the key factors resulting in margins remaining strong? And where should we look at these margins going ahead? Secondly, on fiber-ization, you mentioned that this is a great opportunity for you, and you see that operators are now more amenable to sharing fiber. But as the quarters roll by, Airtel, Jio, they seem to be very aggressive in rolling out fiber. Won't it get more and more difficult to harbor fiber as such given that in several large urban centers where there is high demand, fiber rollouts will be aggressive? And lastly, did you quantify the exit penalties that you expect to receive in total?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

So first, your first question on core margins. Yes, there's been some operational initiatives where we have managed to reduce the cost a little bit. And also, if you look at Voda-Idea numbers, there is a 1-month impact that is there as a part of the 3 months that you see there. There is some residual impact that is likely to come incrementally as you move to the next quarter, and there on, that will become the new normal there. However, as I said, on operational front, there have been some initiatives, which have also yielded some positive results as you can see on the bottom-line items there. There has been some reductions on both network sites and also some stabilization on the [ personnel ] costs there. We expect, on account of Voda-Idea, we expect incrementally anywhere between INR 45 crores to INR 50 crores per month impact to come in, in the subsequent quarters.

V
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Media Analyst

Right. Sorry on the operational front, you mentioned that some of these initiatives that you took are lasting. Have they also spilled over to the maintenance CapEx side? Because I was -- I'm noticing that maintenance CapEx has declined to INR 120 crores from an average of around INR 150 crores in the last few quarters.

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

Maintenance CapEx, firstly you need to see that on a full year basis because there are some seasonal adjustments, depending on which part of the country you're looking at. We do prepare for wintry peaks and snow-clad areas and also floods and other things in other areas. So I would suggest maintenance CapEx have a yearly view, whereas you're not seeing a significant change. But as electricity improves, we do expect -- the last part of maintenance CapEx was towards replacement of batteries and generators. We do expect to trend downwards in the longer run, but on the short run, we're not expecting that to change meaningfully there. In terms of initiatives, yes, those are found to be sustainable and that'll become the new baseline too. But will they continue to yield your EBITDA margin improvements? As I said, as you get down to the levels that we've reached on, increasingly we expect these numbers to be more stable than actually yielding EBITDA margin improvements on the numbers that we've looked there.Your second question on the fiberization, if I try and answer that. Fiber requirement right now as we still see is pretty huge within the cities. More so, first, is of course interconnecting the towers from the current ratios of 1:4 or 1:5 depending on operators that are connected on fiber. As you move to higher spectrum availability to each operator, the only way you can aggregate traffic is taking back, given the large spectrum pools that are available with each operator is through fiber. And we see higher advantage of fiber taking place in each of these areas. As you move to small sales and 5G, this requirement will only go up and that's our belief. Within the cities, the requirement of fiber for FTTAs kind of applications, both to the homes and also to interconnect the small [cell] sites, which would come in millions in the long run, you will need fiber pretty much in every street where one could look at within the cities. And there, we do see increasing deployments by incumbent operators as their traffic is growing and the sharing of itself is mostly bilateral. No one doing proactive building of fiber to sell to somebody, except in the case of Smart Cities that we have built in Vadodara for Indus and Delhi and also in Bhopal.

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

I think a very clear point is, at this point, we do not know how the operators would deal with the fiber, but we believe that fiber except like towers has got to come out and be shared on a non-discriminatory basis. As far as our company is concerned, we will definitely try to see that begin to roll out fiber and connecting [the tower] as the last line and in rolling out fiber in the Smart City projects, which we didn't [in the center].

V
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Media Analyst

Right. And lastly, on the exit penalties, what is the. [Audio Gap]

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

So on exit penalties, for the exits that we've seen, the exit penalties close to INR 1500 crores on a consolidated basis.

Operator

The next question comes from Viral Shah from Crédit Suisse, Mumbai.

S
Sunil Tirumalai
Vice President

This is Sunil Tirumalai from Crédit Suisse. I have a couple of questions. Jio right now -- and out of the estimated 180,000 or 200,000 sites that they may be having, what is your estimate of their own sites versus what they have rented?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

Hard to elaborate somehow -- we do have some information, but we don't give this information in respect of our customers.

S
Sunil Tirumalai
Vice President

Okay. Also sites that they are building, are they all only monopoles with no intention to share or do you think there is a threat that they could open up for sharing at some time?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

Again, I think it is so inappropriate for us to tell you. I think it's best to ask them.

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

Yes.

Operator

The next question comes from Mr. Anirudh Gangahar from Nomura, Mumbai.

A
Anirudh Gangahar
Research Analyst

The first question is that you mentioned INR 1,500 crores is the typical exit penalties from ongoing operators. This would essentially be Voda-Idea and it doesn't have anything to do with Bharti, Tata and Telenor I'm assuming. Would you have any such total assessment of what would be the amount of what operators that have exited that you are in the process of recovering via the lease process? That's question one. Second question is on the energy charges and the reimbursement, the margin seemed to be a lot higher for Infratel versus Indus. Any reason for that? And secondly, on this topic, is there a possibility that it could go through a pass-through system, given that the telcos are not having the best of health at this point of time?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

So your first question is right. Your understanding is correct there, INR 1500 crores being with operators that we're pursuing exits on. The rest of the cases are -- the matter is right now sub judice at various stages of legal recourse. As I would not like to give that number away, just to put that in perspective, these numbers are significantly smaller. We've said that in the past that our exposure to smaller operators was much lower than some of our competition. And hence, these numbers are also proportionately small. But we're not quantifying that at this stage because each of these are individual operations that are proceeding that.

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

And also looking at the status, the chances of recovery don't look too good. And that's why we took a policy earlier on that these things will be recognized only on the actual receipt.

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

Your second question related to energy margin too, again, category B and C circles, there is a different profile as compared to the metros and cities where there is better grid availability. And hence, the opportunity to maximize grid is lower in some cases, and your ability to put out green initiatives is also lower. Some of this has also to do with additional map reads and additional CapEx that have been included in these sites and you do see that impact coming in. Also some of the things that you expect from the improvement of grid have all played out. And that's why you do see a difference there on energy market. But again, this has to be, again, seen on full year basis. There are places, which get impacted in winters as against the summers. The full year impact would be a more fair assessment between Indus, Infratel. Your question of whether operators would like to more to pass-through? Today, operators are seeing significant benefit on account of the fixed energy models where I've been signed up with them where there are savings. And all those initiatives that we're jointly taking have yielded good results with operators and has also reduced the amount of effort and time required for reconciliation between both the parties. In order to continue to encourage tower companies to make investments towards diesel reduction, we believe this is the model to go forward and will only get improvised from this point on to become more load-oriented rather than base station-oriented as it is today to go forward and become more indexed to the current grid price as against the grid versus diesel that is available today.

A
Anirudh Gangahar
Research Analyst

Right. Just one follow-up to the first question that was asked. Whatever termination charges we get, that would be a straight flow to EBITDA level?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

Well, our endeavor which we are in discussions is that whatever we get by way of cash, that also we would like to amortize over some period and not take it in the same month, but we are not too sure at this point as to what kind of accounting treatment would be allowed. But yes, as expected, it goes straight to the bottom-line. No related [expenditures] to that.

A
Anirudh Gangahar
Research Analyst

Right. So basically, whatever you're going to get in cash, which you will have a bit of visibility on by the next quarter, that also may actually be recognized on an amortized basis actually?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

They would like to do that.

Operator

The next question comes from Mr. Sanjay Chawla from JM Financial, Mumbai.

S
Sanjay Chawla
Research Director

I had just one question. Can you comment on the amount of [ development ] on the balance sheet that you can potentially utilize to pay out dividend more than the annual profit or you could also do share buyback?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

Right now, we can't do a share buyback because our merger is key, is in progress. But yes, there is some fair amount. I don't have it with us. So we have -- in terms of distribution, we have only a marginal, right? [ Exception to different amounts ].

S
Sanjay Chawla
Research Director

Sorry, I didn't get -- you have some marginal amount?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

Yes. Because we have been declaring most on the dividend whatever profits we have.

S
Sanjay Chawla
Research Director

Yes. That's correct. Just one quick question related to the Voda-Idea impact. You said most of the currency is with Voda, I mean, do see any scope for further exits in the sense, the overlapping one has already played out, but once it is not overlapping because they could have lot of towers or tenancies which are nearby belong to major legacy operators. Do you see some impact potentially coming as a result of those nonoverlapping, but nearby tenancies?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

The overlapping improved, to our mind, all those towers.

S
Sanjay Chawla
Research Director

Overlapping improved the nearby towers as well where they both are not present on this? Okay.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Mr. Himanshu Shah from HDFC Securities, Mumbai.

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

So just on exit penalty, the INR 1500 crores number that is for Infratel, plus 42% of Indus, right? Or is it for Infratel plus 100% of Indus?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

No. As I said, 42% of Indus.

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

Okay. So, what would be the full number? Because we're going to merge with Indus, so Infratel plus Indus, if you can help to quantify?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

I don't have the calculation there, but I think next time when we give the complete details, we'll talk about that.

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

Sure, sir. And second question on the overlapping tendency part, as we -- as Vodafone-Idea probably starts to moving their equipment, should we assume some more impact on the revenues on account of that the 55 tenancies for Infratel plus 100% of Indus that they have exited? In case if they start removing the equipments, that could be further impact? And have they already started doing that?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

So as I actually mentioned, there is -- firstly, we do not expect anything beyond the numbers that have already come in. In terms of redeploying the equipment [ priority ] where we believe they are finalizing vendors for them to redeploy probably equipment within the circle or between circles. So we will get to know once they have that plan announced to everybody. But we do not expect there to remove too much of the equipment because they will need large capacities. And therefore, they will have to leave most of the equipment on the site as loadings.

Operator

We have a follow-up question from Mr. Srinivas Rao from Deutsche Bank, Singapore.

S
Srinivas Rao
Research Analyst

Just on the dividend, the interim dividend which you have paid, that's almost INR 1,400 crores and then there will a dividend tax on that. That still would mean you would see the accruing cash, right? Because your cash flows are ultimately running higher than that. Is that a fair comment?

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

Yes, you can assume that.

S
Srinivas Rao
Research Analyst

So I mean, still by the end of the year, you will still -- I mean, even if you pay your full -- even the payout ratio will still be accruing cash for you, right?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

Well, it's equal. Yes, yes.

S
Srinivas Rao
Research Analyst

And is there -- just we haven't seen the NCLT filing at the moment. Is there any chance that your free reserves would increase post the merger? Is there the merger, what we call documentation, any free reserve getting created?

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

I don't know. Maybe we haven't -- the post-merger accounting, I really don't...

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

They've not finalized -- post-merger, we have not finalized the accounting. And it depends upon how the account treatment of the merger will determine that. As of now, I don't think we have beyond that.

A
Akhil Kumar Gupta
Executive Chairman

Srinivas, to your earlier question, if you go to Page 23, if you look at the depreciation and amortization figures, they're pretty much in line with the CapEx. And therefore, the cash flow is more or less the same as the net profit.

Operator

At this moment, we do not have any further questions from participants. I would now hand over the call proceedings to Mr. DS Rawat for the final remarks.

D
Devender Singh Rawat
MD, CEO & Additional Director

Thank you. With Vodafone-Idea merger, the negative impact due to operator consolidation is completely incorporated in our tower tenancies portfolio. Despite the consolidation impact, we closed the quarter with consolidated revenue of INR 3,668 crores and EBITDA of INR 1,506 crores, profit after tax of INR 600 crores. With the worst behind us, we've started to see some increase on the new tower build-out. With 3 large and strong private operators competing for growth along with the government operator, we are seeing strong 4G expansion. With increasing focus on service quality, we expect the catch-up will also reflect in tenancy additions going forward. As Akhil cited, the new forward-looking NDCP with government's commitment towards Digital India augurs very well for infrastructure providers like us. With our pan India coverage and strong operational performance, we believe that we are ready to capitalize on emerging opportunities of sharing on a nondiscriminatory basis. On behalf of the entire Bharti Infratel team, I thank you all for your continued support and we wish you all the very happy Diwali. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for connecting to audio conference service from Airtel, and have a pleasant evening.