Bharti Infratel fell 3.70% to Rs 160 after consolidated net profit rose 7% to Rs 649.50 crore on a 1% increase in revenue to Rs 3624.40 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.
Consolidated profit before tax fell 14% to 866.20 crore during the period under review. EBITDA rose 12% to Rs 1,721 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.
Akhil Gupta, chairman, Bharti Infratel, said: After a few tumultuous years, the Indian Telecom industry took much needed constructive measures in the year gone by in the form of tariff increases. This along with encouraging trends on overall wireless data consumption has led to enhanced focus on improving the quality of networks. As a result, during the year both Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers witnessed an increase in gross additions both on towers and co-locations on a year-on-year basis. We believe this is a harbinger of the future especially as witnessed in the current environment of the Covid-19 crisis, where the nation's dependence on wireless networks has been further elevated. We as part of the telecom passive infrastructure industry are fully committed to supporting the Government and our customers, the telecom operators in the journey of India becoming a global benchmark in digital connectivity and inclusion.
The company added 1,128 towers and 431 co-locations during the last quarter of FY20. It now operates 95,372 towers and 1,74,581 co-locations.
Bharti Infratel said that the passive infrastructure as well as active telecom operations of the group's customers is covered under essential services. Hence, the telecom industry is among the businesses that are least impacted due to COVID-19.
The Group believes that thus far, there is no significant impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the financial position and performance of the Group. Further, the Group is not expecting any significant changes in estimates as of now as the company is running its business and operations as usual without any major disruptions.
On 25 April 2018, Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers entered into a proposed scheme of amalgamation and arrangement to create a pan-India tower company operating across all 22 telecom service areas. The combined company, which will fully own the respective businesses of Infratel and Indus Towers, will change its name to Indus Towers.
The company said its board took note of the status of scheme of arrangement between Indus and Bharti Infratel and have further extended the long stop date till 24 June 2020, subject to agreement on closing adjustments and other conditions precedent for closing, with each party retaining the right toterminate and withdraw the scheme.
The firm's board has declared third interim dividend of Rs 4.10 per equity share for financial year 2019-20, the payment of which will be done on or before 22 May 2020. This along with the two interim dividends of Rs 3.65 and Rs 2.75, would result in total dividend of Rs 10.5 per equity share for the financial year 2019-20.
Bharti Infratel is a provider of passive telecom infrastructure and it deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures, for various mobile operators.
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