Bharti Airtel Q4 profit up 30%

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported an over 30 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,255 crore for the March quarter, driven by growth in mobile data revenue. The country’s largest telecom operator had reported a net profit of Rs 962 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Total revenue of the company rose 3.6 per cent to Rs 23,016 crore for the reported quarter as compared with Rs 22,219 crore in the year-ago period, Bharti Airtel said in a statement. On yearly basis, the net profit soared 86.9 per cent to Rs 5,183 crore for FY 2014-15 as compared with Rs 2,773 crore in the previous fiscal. Total revenue for the entire 2014-15 fiscal rose 7.3 per cent to Rs 92,039 crore as against Rs 85,746 crore in the preceding year.  “The year has ended on a healthy note, with revenue growth accelerating to 12.1 per cent in FY 2014-15, from 9.9 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively in the previous two years,” Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said. Consolidated mobile data revenues at Rs 3,085 crore grew by 59.1 per cent year-on-year(y-o-y), uplifted by higher data usage and robust customer growth.

In India, mobile data revenues registered a growth of 70.4 per cent to reach Rs 2,324 crore, uplifted by increase in usage per customer by 41.2 per cent and data customer base by 30.3 per cent. Data average revenue per user (ARPU) has moved up by Rs 43 to Rs 176 in Q4 FY15. Mobile data revenues contribute to 17.6 per cent of mobile India revenues vis-a-vis 11.5 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.