Bharti Q1 profit up 40% to Rs 1554.3 cr

The profit was aided by a net benefit after tax of Rs 458 crore, mainly related to the hiving off of tower assets in four African countries for about $1.3 billion.

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, headed by Indian billionaire Sunil Mittal, said mobile data traffic grew 86.5 per cent in the quarter.

In his role as CBO at Airtel, Mathrani will lead the company’s brand positioning, strategic initiatives and associations, and will report to Srini Gopalan, director of consumer business, Bharti Airtel, India.

Mobile data revenues contributed 19.2 per cent of Mobile India revenues in the first quarter, compared to 12.4 per cent in year-ago period. Active Airtel Money customer base increased to 7.0 million, boosting the total transaction values on Airtel Money platform by 72.6% to US$ 3.3 Bn.

The company saw decline in its Africa business with net loss before exception item widening to Rs 976.8 crore in the reported quarter compared to Rs 820 crore loss it posted under same head.

Overall, Airtel says that consolidated revenues for Q1-2016 at Rs 23,671 crore grew by 3.1 per cent over the corresponding quarter past year.

Analysts on average expected the company, which operates in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, to post earnings of Rs 1,355 crore, according to Thomson Reuters data. Customer churn has been reduced from 7 percent to 5.4 percent as a result of customer lifecycle management programmes.

“India revenues are very strong; the minutes volume growth is up, data is up”, said Naveen Kulkarni, an analyst at PhillipCapital (India) Pvt.in Mumbai. The data customer penetration at 16.6 percent reflects the untapped potential in the internet space.