Reliance Communications (RCOM) the flagship company of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has been at the forefront of the transformation of the Indian telecom space and continues to do so.

And despite the slowdown in the Indian economy in financial year 2009 where corporate buying remained subdued, the company managed to grow its total income by 20.34%, over the previous year taking the amount to Rs 22,948 crore. For the same period, its net earnings touched Rs 6,045 crore against Rs 5,401 crore the previous financial year. The company has managed to maintain a 29% compounded growth rate in its revenues over the past four financial years and a compounded growth rate of 55% in its operating profits and a strong 139% in net earnings.

Anil D Ambani, chairman of RCOM while speaking about the performance in testing time said, ?It is therefore commendable that the year saw us making important strides forward in our mission to become one of the world?s leading integrated service providers across the entire value chain of telecom businesses.? And while it has managed to capture almost all elements of the telecommunication sector value chain, the company would also be restructuring its businesses. ?We are alive to the needs of changing industry trends and economic environment,? says Ambani . The vertical businesses are being restructured and realigned to make them meet the requirements of enterprise and individual customers.

The demerger of the Optic Fiber Network to Reliance Infratel, the telecom infrastructure subsidiary of RCOM, will enhance the company?s value proposition in the telecom infrastructure segment and, at the same time, create a simple and transparent structure.

Ambani believes, ?Each of the businesses operated by the Company, either by itself or through subsidiaries, affiliate companies or strategic investments in other companies, is poised at the cusp of significant opportunities for growth,?

In line with the company?s objective of profitable growth, margins in the wireless business remained amongst the highest in the industry at 37% in financial year 2009. This was despite the significant capital expenditure committed to the business over the last two years.

?With the unique advantages available to our business, we are now at the forefront of the next wave of growth in the Indian infrastructure,? mentions Ambani.

The year has marked the launch of its GSM business and the company delivered the highest wireless subscriber acquisition in the world at 5 million in the first month of the GSM launch. Following the launch of the nationwide GSM network, the company captured more than 25% share of net additions in a market that already has seven to eight telecom operators on a network that extends seamless coverage to over 1 billion Indians across 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages.

And the growth numbers continue as the company acquired nearly 34 million subscribers between January and December 2009. That makes RCOM the fourth largest, single country wireless telecom operator globally with nearly 94 million subscribers.

The company has been receiving flak for starting off a tariff war in the telecom sector. And this is not the first occasion where the company was accused of changing industry dynamics.

However, some impact of this was felt on the financials in the December 2009 quarter as consolidated revenues were down 6.9% to Rs 5,309.8 crore, from Rs 5,702.6 crore of the previous quarter of the same year. For the same period, the operating profit shrunk by 9.3% to touch Rs 4,476.1 crore. The management however remains confident that the tariff war in the sector would consolidate in the days to come.

In the current fiscal year, the management expects to invest upto Rs 4,500 crore towards capital expenditure.