Reliance Jio likely to lose Rs 15,000cr in FY19: Bernstein

Reliance Jio Infocomm is staring at a potential loss of ₹15,000 crore ($2.1 billion) in FY19, which isn’t immediately visible because the Mukesh Ambani-led telco uses non-standard depreciation metrics and relies on another group company to bear handset subsidies, brokerage Sanford C Bernstein said.

However, Bernstein expects Jio to become the No 1 telco in India by both subscribers and service revenue over next 12 months, “based on the assumption that Jio will continue to heavily subsidise JioPhones.”

The subsidies aimed at popularising the VoLTE feature phone – JioPhone – are shouldered by group company Reliance Retail.