Bharti Airtel Q2 net profit falls 38%

In the corresponding quarter ended September 30 last year,the company had registered a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,661 crore,Bharti said.

“Markets globally and locally have been challenging… Traditionally,July-September quarter is a quarter of being subdued customer demand for the sector…,” Bharti Airtel CFO Manik Jhangiani said.

During the quarter,the US dollar appreciated against the rupee,resulting in forex restatement losses of Rs 239 crore for the company,as against a gain of Rs 249 crore in Q2 last fiscal.

The impact of recent judicial pronouncements on regulatory matters has been prudently considered in the quarter’s financials,the company said.

Bharti Airtel’s total sales were up by 13.38 per cent at Rs 17,270 crore in Q2,FY’12,as against Rs 15,231 crore in Q2,FY’11.

For the India and South Asia region,the company has earmarked a capex of about USD 2 billion for the current fiscal,out of which the company has already spent around USD 1 billion,Jhangiani added.

The company’s overall customer base stood at 237 million across 19 countries at the end of the reporting quarter.

Monthly average revenue per user (ARPU),a key metric for telecom carriers,from Bharti’s Indian operations fell to Rs 183 during the reporting quarter from Rs 190 in the June quarter. Average usage per user also declined to 423 minutes at the end of the September quarter from 445 minutes in the June quarter this year.

Bharti Airtel said the roll-out of its 3G network resulted in a higher amortisation cost of Rs 164 crore for the quarter,while its net interest cost rose to Rs 115 crore during the reporting period.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis,Bharti Airtel’s net profit for the second quarter was down 15.49 per cent from Rs 1,215.2 crore in the previous April-June quarter this year.

As of September 30,2011,the company had a total of 21,548 employees.

“This year is progressing well for the company. India has achieved double-digit growth,fuelled by non-voice businesses.

The arrest of continuously declining prices in India augurs well for the telecom industry,” Bharti Airtel CMD Sunil Mittal said in a statement.

“We look forward to constructive deliberation on the draft National Telecom Policy,2011,and Trai recommendations for promoting the government’s broadband vision and viability of the sector,” he added.

The company had net debt of USD 13.169 billion as of September 30,2011. During the quarter ended September 30,2011,the company incurred a capital expenditure of Rs 47,287 million.

On the company’s African business,Mittal said,”Africa has notched up strong revenue growth of 23 per cent. The company has launched 3G services in Congo B and Airtel Money in Zambia and Kenya.”

“We continue to expand our footprint across Africa,with our recent acquisition of 2G and 3G licence in Rwanda,” he added.

Last year,Bharti had acquired Zain Telecom’s Africa operations for USD 10.7 billion to become the world’s fifth-largest mobile operator.

This was the first full quarter of comparable consolidated results following the Africa acquisition.

The monthly ARPU for Airtel’s African operations stayed flat at USD 7.3 during the reporting quarter,while average usage increased to 128 minutes in the quarter ended September 30 from 121 minutes in the June quarter this year.

The recent tariff increase in India has begun to take effect,offsetting some of the inflationary and other cost increases impacting the entire industry.

During the quarter,Bharti Airtel successfully introduced a new organisation structure for its operations in India and South Asia.

The new structure has two distinct Customer Business Units (CBU) with a clear focus on the B2C (Business-to-Customer) and B2B (Business-to-Business) segments. The B2C vertical is divided into Consumer Business and Market Operations.

The B2B business unit continues to focus on serving large corporates and carriers through Bharti Airtel’s wide portfolio of telecommunication solutions.

Bharti’s Q2 net profit down by 38.17 pc at $210 million

(Reuters text) Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel,India’s top mobile phone carrier,on Friday reported a bigger-than-expected 38 percent fall in quarterly profit,hit by higher interest costs and foreign exchange losses.

Bharti,nearly a third owned by Southeast Asia’s biggest phone firm SingTel,said consolidated net profit fell to Rs 10.27 billion ($210 million) for its fiscal second quarter ended September from Rs 16.61 billion a year earlier,based on international accounting standards.

A poll of brokerages had expected net profit of Rs 12.33 billion for the New Delhi-based firm,which last year acquired mobile operations in 15 African countries in a $9 billion debt-funded deal.

Bharti currently operates in 19 countries across Asia and Africa and is the world’s fifth-biggest mobile phone carrier by subscribers. India is the company’s biggest market where it had about 173 million mobile users at the end of September.

($1=49 Indian rupees)

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