Bharti Airtel reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 1035.20 crore in Q3 December 2019 as against a net profit of Rs 86.2 crore reported in Q3 December 2018.
Net sales rose 8.5% to Rs 21947.10 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018. India revenues for Q3 2019 stood at Rs 15,797 crore increasing 9.7% Year on Year (YoY) on an underlying basis. Mobile revenues have witnessed a 9.6% growth YoY led by a strong focus on quality customers and partial benefit by the recent tariff action. The company clarified that the full impact of the tariff actions is yet to be seen.
Consolidated mobile data traffic stood at 5,357 PBs in the quarter, registering a healthy Y-o-Y growth of 73%. The average revenue per user (ARPU) rose 5.3% on QoQ basis and 29.9% on YoY basis to Rs 135 in Q3 December 2019. The company also reported a highest ever 4G subscriber additions during the quarter at 21 million.
The telecom operator reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 1502 crore in Q3 2019 as against pre-tax profit of Rs 200.2 crore in Q3 2018. Tax expense rose 37.1% YoY to Rs 730.90 crore in Q3 December 2019.
Bharti Airtel's EBITDA jumped 48% to Rs 9350 crore in Q3 December 2019 from Rs 6306.9 crore posted in Q3 December 2018. Consolidated EBITDA margin stood at 42.6% in Q3 2019 as against 31.2% reported in Q3 2018.
The company reported an exceptional charge of Rs 1050 crore during the quarter ended Q3 December 2019 for compromising a charge on account of interest on the provision of license fee and spectrum usage charges recorded in the quarter ended Q2 September 2019.
The telecom operator also reported that it has successfully raised Rs 21,502 crore through a combination of fresh equity issuance via qualified institutional placement and issue of convertible bonds. The company intends to use these proceeds to augment its long term resources and strengthen its balance sheet.
Total capex spend for the quarter ended on 31 December 2019 was Rs 5183 crore. The company's overall customer base stands at 411 million across 16 countries.
Commenting on company's Q3 performance, Goal Vittal, MD and CEO said, "We added 21 million 4G customers to our mobile network and delivered superior value to our customers through the Airtel Thanks program. Data traffic saw strong growth of ~72% Y-o-Y. We are on track to shut down our 3G networks across India and re-farm the 900 and 2100 band spectrum to further boost our 4G footprint to serve the surging demand for high speed data. While tariff revision undertaken in December 2019 is a welcome step towards repairing the financial health of the industry, we believe tariffs must go up further for enabling the industry to invest in emerging technologies."
Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa.
Shares of Bharti Airtel were up 1.36% at Rs 526.15.
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