Bharti Airtel posts 72 percent drop in third-quarter profit

(Reuters) - Bharti Airtel Ltd posted a nearly 72 percent fall in quarterly profit on Thursday, as the telecoms bellwether suffered from continuing pricing pressure.

Net profit for the three months through December 31 was 862 million rupees ($12.13 million) compared with a profit of 3.06 billion rupees in the year-earlier quarter. https://reut.rs/2UqqZFq

The company reported a one-off gain of 14.14 billion rupees during the quarter.

That compared with analyst estimates of a loss of 6.86 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

Revenue rose about 1 percent to 205.19 billion rupees.

($1 = 71.0800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Arnab Paul in BENGALURU; Editing by Christopher Cushing and David Evans)