VSNL Q1 revenue growth dips

BANGALORE: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) on Thursday
announced a 1:1 bonus to its shareholders. The company has also released its
first quarter results which shows an eight per cent increase in net profit.

VSNL’s total revenues in this period grew by just 3.93 per
cent to Rs 1851.10 crore against Rs 1781.10 crore in Q1 1999. The lower growth
in revenues is due to fall in accounting rates by about 15 per cent, according
to a release.

Net profit touched Rs 382.9 crore, while gross profit rose to
Rs 591.5 crore for the quarter, against Rs 548.4 crore for Q1 1999, showing a
growth of 7.86 per cent. The company has registered 16.23 per cent rise in
telephone traffic during the period.

The leased line circuits grew by 67.85 per cent, while its
Internet subscribers increased by 83.44 per cent. The release said that revenues
from Internet grew by 33.95 per cent to Rs 72.2 crore against Rs 53.9 crore
posted during the corresponding period of 1999-2000.

The telephone traffic for the quarter ended June 30, 2000,
aggregated to 60.95 crore paid minutes (incoming 49.01 crore and outgoing 11.94
crore) compared to 52.44 crore paid minutes recorded during the corresponding
period last year.

VSNL on July 12 announced the launch of Operation Bandwidth,
under which it is taking steps to acquire international capacity for leased
lines and the Internet. Customers will be offered "bandwidth on
demand" within the prescribed period. The offer will be open to all
connections sought from VSNL after October, 2000, the release said.

Commenting on the future outlook, VSNL chairman and managing
director SK Gupta said that the opening up of the Domestic Long Distance segment
would create a new revenue stream for VSNL.