RIL shares end flat; here's what brokerages say on Jio's August subscriber additions

Shares of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) settled marginally lower on Friday. The telecom arm of RIL, Reliance Jio Infocomm, saw a net addition in subscribers for the 18th consecutive month in August, up 32 lakh on month-on-month basis, TRAI data suggested.

Jio's active subscriber additions were a tad lower at 12 lakh. The rise in Jio’s net subscriber additions was against a monthly subscriber addition of 7 lakh-39 lakh since March 2022. Analysts said Jio had earlier reported a net subscriber loss of 37 lakh/93 lakh/1.29 crore/1.9 crore in February 2022, January 2022, December 2021 and September 2021 due to sim consolidation post the November 2021 tariff hike and repurposing of customer retention efforts for low-ARPU subscribers.

"Jio’s active subscribers rose 12 lakh in August, but the pace of addition continued to slow down," said JM Financial said in a note.

The stock closed the day at Rs 2,355.85, down 0.32 per cent. JM Financial said Jio’s Visitor Location Register (VLR) ratio further declined slightly month-on-month to 93.6 per cent in August against 94 per cent in July and its peak of 94.5 per cent in June 2023. This is against 99.8 per cent for Bharti Airtel Ltd and 87.3 per cent for Vodafone Idea Ltd.

"Jio added 32 lakh subscribers in August, down from the 39 lakhs added in July. This is the 17th straight month of the highest subscriber addition for Jio; its VLR base grew by only 12 lakh MoM, as its VLR proportion was down MoM at 93.6 per cent in August from 94 per cent in July. Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh were the main contributors to the VLR increase, while Maharashtra and West Bengal were the major laggards," Emkay Global said.

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