GTL says on course to achieve FY09 rev guidance

(Repeats story issued late on Thursday)

MUMBAI, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Network services provider GTL Ltd (GTL.BO) sees itself on target to achieve its revenue guidance of 21.50 billion rupees in FY09, but prevailing market conditions could pose problems, a top official said on Thursday.

"I think the Jan-March quarter will pick up though the last two quarters were tough," Chairman and Managing Director Manoj Tirodkar said on the sidelines of an analyst conference.

He, however, said that if the current difficult credit situation continued for the next two quarters, the target may be difficult to achieve.

"(Telecom) providers may have money but they will not spend," he said.

The company is betting on business from the incumbent and new telecom operators in the country, and the expected capex of $20 billion-$30 billion over the next 2-3 years.

For the quarter to September, the company reported a 25 percent rise in net profit to 423.6 million rupees, while revenue rose 11 percent to 4.92 billion rupees.

"Cost pressures will remain," Tirodkar said.

The company has also put the sale of its IT services back-office division on the backburner as "there are no buyers", he said. The unit was spun off into a separate subsidiary in preparation for the sale.

The company closed the September quarter with an order book of 24.71 billion rupees.

Shares in the company closed up marginally at 179.75 rupees.

(Reporting by Janaki Krishnan; Editing by Prem Udayabhanu)

((janaki.krishnan@thomsonreuters.com, +91-22 66369138; Reuters Messaging: janaki.krishnan.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: GTL/OUTLOOK

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