Bharti Airtel rings in 40% quarterly profit increase

Riding on the mobile Internet boom, telecom major Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported about 40 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,554.3 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year. The company had posted <g data-gr-id="45">net</g> profit of Rs 1,108.5 crore in the April-June quarter of last fiscal.

During the quarter ended June 30, 2015-16, it saw 86.5 <g data-gr-id="26">per cent</g> year-on-year traffic growth in the mobile data business. Its consolidated total sales grew by 2.9 per cent to Rs 23,680.8 crore, as against Rs 23,005.5 crore in the first quarter of 2014-15. "Our customer base has continued to steadily expand.

Mobile minutes and data traffic have grown by 7.4 per cent and 83.4 per cent respectively. I am pleased that our revenue growth is <g data-gr-id="27">broad based</g> across all business units, especially the domestic enterprise and corporate segment," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO, India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said in a statement. 

India revenues reported a growth of 10 per cent y-o-y basis, led by 22.2 <g data-gr-id="31">per cent</g> in Airtel business (B2B) and 15.8 <g data-gr-id="32">per cent</g> in Digital TV. "Mobile Data revenue at Rs 2,609 crore registered a growth of 67.3 per cent y-o-y in India, uplifted by increase in the Data customer base by 25.8 per cent and traffic by 83.4 per cent," the statement said. 

Average data revenue per user of the company moved up by Rs 42 to Rs 181 in the reported quarter, an increase of 42.7 <g data-gr-id="33">per cent</g> in data usage per customer. Mobile data revenues contributed 19.2 <g data-gr-id="34">per cent</g> of Mobile India revenues in the first quarter, compared to 12.4 <g data-gr-id="35">per cent</g> in <g data-gr-id="50">year-ago</g> period. <g data-gr-id="49">Total</g> customer base of Bharti Airtel stood at 331.86 million at the end of the quarter under review. 

The company saw <g data-gr-id="46">decline</g> in its Africa business with <g data-gr-id="47">net</g> loss before exception item widening to Rs 976.8 crore in the reported quarter compared to Rs 820 crore loss it posted under <g data-gr-id="48">same</g> head.

Bharti Airtel Africa revenue declined by 11.6 per cent to Rs 6,159.5 crore, compared to Rs 6,968.5 crore in the first quarter of last fiscal. The company, however, saw 1 per cent y-o-y increase in Africa revenue in constant currency terms. Data revenues in Africa stood at $128 million with <g data-gr-id="43">growth</g> of 48.5 <g data-gr-id="28">per cent</g> on <g data-gr-id="44">annual</g> basis, the statement said.