Bharti Airtel net rises 87%

GSM player Bharti Airtel has posted 87 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 1,643.76 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2007, compared with Rs 878.84 crore in the same period of the previous financial year.

Commenting on the results, Bharti Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal said, "The quarter has seen telecom growth accelerate further, clearly demonstrating that the Indian telecom market still has a long way to go to achieve its full potential."

The company's total income during the quarter under review rose 46.4 per cent to Rs 6,386.73 crore from Rs 4,363.03 crore reported in the comparable period a year ago, Bharti Airtel said in a statement to the BSE today.

Even though the rise in total income was mostly in line with the analysts' expectations of a 40-45 per cent increase, the 87 per cent increase in net profit was much above street estimates of 60-65 per cent.

The company's consolidated net profit for the quarter, under the US GAAP, rose 73 per cent over last year to Rs 1,614 crore. The consolidated revenues rose 45 per cent to Rs 6,337 crore, while EBITDA rose 59 per cent to Rs 2,710 crore on a year-on-year basis.

Bharti Airtel crossed the 50 million customer mark to enter the league of the world's top telecom companies.

Bharti, which gets majority of the revenues from its GSM mobile users, added 6.2 million mobile users during the quarter. The company had a total customer base of 5.1 crore subscribers and 23.4 per cent share in the country's wireless segment, as on September 30, 2007.

Bharti, which also provides fixed-line and broadband services, said that its operating profit in the quarter rose by 59 per cent despite a 16 per cent fall in average revenue per user (ARPU) to Rs 366 compared with a year earlier.

"Going forward, we see strong demand for telecom services across all segments and are well-placed to take advantage of these growth opportunities," Mittal said.

Airtel increased coverage to over 2.90 lakh towns and villages in the country during the reporting quarter.

Addressing reporters in Delhi, Bharti Airtel President Manoj Kohli said that the company was open to offloading stake in the tower business to financial and operating partners.

The company is looking at demerging its tower business, Bharti Infratel in this quarter, but will continue to hold a minority stake in the hived-off division.

The company is also in discussions with state-run telecom company BSNL for sharing passive infrastructure across the country.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 1,006.60, up 0.69 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange.