Bharti Infratel, a leading provider of telecom towers and related infrastructure, has reported 39 per cent jump in its net profit of Rs 887 crore during April to June as compared to Rs 638 crore the same period of previous fiscal year.
The consolidated revenue for the quarter was Rs 3,712 crore up by 1 per cent from Rs 3,674 crore. Consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was at Rs 1,953 crore, up by 28 per cent from Rs 1,521 crore year-on-year, representing an operating margin of 52.6 per cent.
The operating free cash flow was at Rs 1,207 crore, up by 22 per cent from Rs 991 crore y-o-y while the return on equity pre-tax and post-tax was 33.6 per cent and 26.9 per cent as against 25 per cent and 14.7 per cent respectively on y-o-y basis.
"We are pleased to note that after negative trend in net co-locations for the last six consecutive quarters due to consolidation in the telecom industry, we had net additions in co-locations this quarter," said Bharti Infratel Chairman Akhil Gupta.
"We hope and believe that this trend will continue as the operators post-consolidation and raising of significant capital recently will now focus on fresh rollouts of networks to increase both coverage and capacity which is the need of the hour," he said in a statement.
Bharti Infratel owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures for various mobile operators. The company's consolidated portfolio of over 92,000 telecom towers, which includes over 40,000 of its own towers and the balance from its 42 per cent equity interest in Indus Towers, makes it one of the largest tower infrastructure providers in the country with presence in all 22 telecom circles.
Bharti Infratel and Indus's three largest customers are Bharti Airtel (together with Bharti Hexacom), Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm which are leading wireless telecommunications service providers in India by wireless revenue.