Bharti Airtel Q1 net profit rises 40% to Rs 1554.3 cr

Post acquisition, Airtel will use the platform to expand its portfolio in mobile payments segment and will introduce new products targeted at migrants in urban areas that have families in rural towns and villages. Consolidated Mobile data revenues at Rs 3,459 crore, grew by 56.9 per cent y-o-y, uplifted by data traffic growth of 86.5 per cent. India revenues reported a growth of 10 per cent y-o-y, led by 22.2 per cent in Airtel business (B2B) and 15.8 per cent in Digital TV. “The year has begun on a healthy note, with underlying revenue growth accelerating to 12.7 percent in India”, said Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia. Though the average revenue per user (ARPU) has fallen, there has been growth in voice traffic in the June quarter, he said.

Consolidated EBITDA at Rs8,262 crore grew 6.4 per cent with EBITDA margin expanding by 1.1 per cent to 34.9 per cent, driven by expansion in India margin by 2.1 per cent. The resultant consolidated EBIT of Rs4,216 crore represents a growth of 14.2 per cent, with EBIT margin improving by 1.7 per cent.

– Bharti Airtel Ltd. first-quarter profit beat analyst estimates after India’s largest mobile-phone carrier boosted data usage at home and sold wireless towers in Africa.

Bharti fell 1.4 percent to 413.25 rupees in Mumbai trading on Tuesday, before the earnings announcement.

The company saw decline in its Africa business, with net loss before exceptional item widening to Rs 976.8 crore in the reported quarter compared with the Rs 820 crore loss it posted past year. In terms of customer base, Airtel ranks No. 3 worldwide. Customer churn has been reduced from 7 percent to 5.4 percent as a result of customer lifecycle management programmes. The data customer penetration at 16.6% reflects the untapped potential in the internet space.

In the quarter under review, Bharti Airtel made a net gain of Rs 2,268.7 crore from divestment of telecom tower assets in Uganda, Ghana, Congo Brazzaville and Nigeria. “We are also satisfied with continued profitable growth in Nigeria”.