Airtel quarterly profit dips 29% in 15th fall in a row
1 Nov 2013 4:30 AM IST
Profit dropped to Rs 512 crore in the quarter ended 30 September from Rs 721.2 crore a year earlier, mainly on account of increase in finance costs and forex losses due to rupee depreciation, the company said in a BSE filing.
'The continued depreciation of the Indian rupee has resulted in forex restatement and derivative losses of Rs 342 crore versus Rs 25 crore loss for Q2 FY13,' the company said. The margin of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, or EBITA, was 32 per cent in the quarter compared with 30.6 per cent a year ago.
'We are seeing some kind of positive movement on the Indian front and it continues to be a very dynamic industry,' Bharti's Group chief financial officer Sarvjit Singh Dhillon said at a press conference here. He said that with certain initiatives in the past few months, especially by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on spectrum pricing, auctions, trading and other proposals, there is a positive movement to bring this sector back at what it was 4-5 years ago.
He, however, said the industry still faces regulatory hindrances on issues related to one-time fee, taxes, penalties and 3G roaming. Consolidated revenue grew 10 per cent to Rs 21,342.8 crore from Rs 19,408.5 crore a year earlier.
Airtel is betting big on data after revenue from the mobile Internet segment doubled to Rs 1,503 crore from a year earlier, accounting for 39.1 per cent of the overall incremental revenue. The company last month increased mobile Internet rates by about 25 per cent and reduced benefits under certain schemes by about 50 per cent. For voice services, Airtel cut back on discounted minutes, helping to increase realisations.
Hinting at further rate hikes, Airtel's joint managing director and CEO Gopal Vittal said, 'Tariffs today in this country are at absolutely unsustainable levels.' He, however, said that while the company has not increased headline tariffs till now, it will look at improving realisation rates by cutting discounts.
'On a secular basis, there is no other way but for these rates to increase. We still believe there is lot of headroom to cut back on discounts and improve realisation. As of now, we haven't touched the headline rates,' he added. Bharti Airtel added about 25 lakh mobile users in the country during the quarter for a total of 19.34 crore subscribers at the end of September.
Monthly churn or attrition of users improved to 3.2 per cent from 8.5 per cent in the same period last year. 'One of the things that we are pleased about is the fact that our churn has been controlled and our churn today is at 3.2 per cent which is a very low level compared to many other operators,' Vittal said.
The voice usage per customer increased by 20 minutes per month to 437 minutes in the quarter from 417 minutes in the second quarter of FY'2013. Airtel's data usage per customer increased by 98 megabytes to 231 MBs in the quarter from 133 MBs a year ago. The average revenue of the company per customer moved up by Rs 15 to Rs 192.
International revenue increased 17.9 per cent on a yearly basis in rupee terms, with Africa growing by 16.1 per cent Y-o-Y and South Asia by 54.4 per cent. The net loss for its African region widened to $105 million from $97 million in the same quarter a year ago. Africa revenue increased 2 per cent to $1,119 million from $1,097 million.
'Airtel Africa as a market has come back to growth. We have had a couple of weak quarters of market growth and now growth is back. I believe the customer base is growing well, rates are stable, ARPUs are higher, mobile Internet and m-commerce businesses are picking up,' Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint MD Manoj Kohli said.
'The continued depreciation of the Indian rupee has resulted in forex restatement and derivative losses of Rs 342 crore versus Rs 25 crore loss for Q2 FY13,' the company said. The margin of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, or EBITA, was 32 per cent in the quarter compared with 30.6 per cent a year ago.
'We are seeing some kind of positive movement on the Indian front and it continues to be a very dynamic industry,' Bharti's Group chief financial officer Sarvjit Singh Dhillon said at a press conference here. He said that with certain initiatives in the past few months, especially by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on spectrum pricing, auctions, trading and other proposals, there is a positive movement to bring this sector back at what it was 4-5 years ago.
He, however, said the industry still faces regulatory hindrances on issues related to one-time fee, taxes, penalties and 3G roaming. Consolidated revenue grew 10 per cent to Rs 21,342.8 crore from Rs 19,408.5 crore a year earlier.
Airtel is betting big on data after revenue from the mobile Internet segment doubled to Rs 1,503 crore from a year earlier, accounting for 39.1 per cent of the overall incremental revenue. The company last month increased mobile Internet rates by about 25 per cent and reduced benefits under certain schemes by about 50 per cent. For voice services, Airtel cut back on discounted minutes, helping to increase realisations.
Hinting at further rate hikes, Airtel's joint managing director and CEO Gopal Vittal said, 'Tariffs today in this country are at absolutely unsustainable levels.' He, however, said that while the company has not increased headline tariffs till now, it will look at improving realisation rates by cutting discounts.
'On a secular basis, there is no other way but for these rates to increase. We still believe there is lot of headroom to cut back on discounts and improve realisation. As of now, we haven't touched the headline rates,' he added. Bharti Airtel added about 25 lakh mobile users in the country during the quarter for a total of 19.34 crore subscribers at the end of September.
Monthly churn or attrition of users improved to 3.2 per cent from 8.5 per cent in the same period last year. 'One of the things that we are pleased about is the fact that our churn has been controlled and our churn today is at 3.2 per cent which is a very low level compared to many other operators,' Vittal said.
The voice usage per customer increased by 20 minutes per month to 437 minutes in the quarter from 417 minutes in the second quarter of FY'2013. Airtel's data usage per customer increased by 98 megabytes to 231 MBs in the quarter from 133 MBs a year ago. The average revenue of the company per customer moved up by Rs 15 to Rs 192.
International revenue increased 17.9 per cent on a yearly basis in rupee terms, with Africa growing by 16.1 per cent Y-o-Y and South Asia by 54.4 per cent. The net loss for its African region widened to $105 million from $97 million in the same quarter a year ago. Africa revenue increased 2 per cent to $1,119 million from $1,097 million.
'Airtel Africa as a market has come back to growth. We have had a couple of weak quarters of market growth and now growth is back. I believe the customer base is growing well, rates are stable, ARPUs are higher, mobile Internet and m-commerce businesses are picking up,' Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint MD Manoj Kohli said.
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