Bharti Airtel's Q3 net profit falls 22%

Average revenue per user declined 5% to Rs 192. During the quarter, the voice ARPU declined 13% to Rs 137, while the data ARPU grew 18%

Higher interest and spectrum costs led to Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest telecom company, posting a 22 per cent decline in its net income at Rs 1,117 crore in the third quarter from Rs 1,436 crore in the same period a year ago.

Airtel’s net interest cost increased to Rs 1,360 crore in the third quarter ended December 2015 from Rs 492 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. The company’s non-voice revenue was 36.7 per cent of total revenue during the quarter, up from 30.8 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Consolidated revenue grew 3.7 per cent to Rs 24,066 crore during the quarter from Rs 23,217 crore in the year-ago period. Consolidated revenue grew 5.9 per cent adjusted for the reduction in Indian termination rates and the divestment of the African tower assets, the company said in a statement.

Consolidated mobile data revenue stood at Rs 4,135 crore, up 44 per cent year on year. Mobile data traffic grew to 161.3 billion megabytes in the quarter, rising 80.2 per cent year on year.

For India, mobile data revenue at Rs 3,184 crore registered a growth of 50.6 per cent with the data customer base increasing by 29.9 per cent and traffic by 73.3 per cent. Mobile data now contributes 23.1 per cent of Bharti’s mobile India revenue, up from 16.2 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.

 

Average revenue per user (ARPU) declined five per cent to Rs 192. During the quarter, the voice ARPU declined 13 per cent to Rs 137, while the data ARPU grew 18 per cent to Rs 200.

The African region reported narrowed net loss of $74 million from $136 million a year ago. Revenue grew 3.1 per cent to over $1 billion from $995 million in the same quarter of the previous year. In constant currency terms, the African revenue, adjusted for the divestment of tower assets, grew by 4.6 per cent.

Data revenue at $146 million grew 40.8 per cent, led by a 37 per cent increase in the data customer base and a 111.6 per cent increase in traffic. Data ARPU increased to $3.3 from $3.2 in the same quarter last year. Data revenue now contributes 14.3 per cent of Bharti’s African revenue, up from 10.5 per cent in the same period of the previous year.

Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said, “Our focus on acquiring quality customers has resulted in addition of 8.1 million in mobile. Our rollout of 3G/4G sites has resulted in acceleration of data usage growth to 73.3 per cent along with data ARPU reaching Rs 200. Our smaller businesses grew by 15.1 per cent on yearly basis in aggregate.”