ICICIdirect has maintained 'Buy' on Idea Cellular with target price of Rs 170 as against current market price (CMP) of Rs 147 in its report.

Commenting on the investment rationale, the stock broker said, "Idea Cellular revenue growth was largely led by a continued uptick in realisations to 45.1 paisa (up 3.4% QoQ) coupled with volume growth both in data and voice. There was 5.2% QoQ voice volume growth to 165.2 billion minutes while the data segment also exhibited impressive growth of 19.1% QoQ to 32.5 billion MB forming 11.5% of mobility revenue. Idea also reversed the trend of a decline in data realisation by posting 4% QoQ growth to 26.3 paisa.

EBITDA was at Rs 25.10 billion, higher than our expectation of Rs 23.02 billion, up 20.9% YoY & 12.6% QoQ due to higher revenues. PAT came in at Rs 7.28 billion, up 23.5% QoQ and 57.4% YoY due to higher operating leverage.

Debt has increased from Rs 122.63 billion to Rs 187.75 billion this year, on the back of spectrum acquisition and related capex. However, Idea had raised Rs 30 billion through QIP, which will be used for repayment of debt. We expect debt/EBITDA to remain best in the industry at 1.3x by FY16E and also feel Idea will continue with its robust operating performance. We expect revenue and PAT to grow at 12.9% and 15.9% CAGR (FY14-16E)."

Disclaimer: IRIS has taken due care and caution in compilation of data for its web site. Information has been obtained by IRIS from sources which it considers reliable. However, IRIS does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. IRIS especially states that it has no financial liability whatsoever to any user on account of the use of information provided on its website.