Moneycontrol Bureau
Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom operator by subscribers, reported 4.55 percent growth in third quarter net profit quarter-on-quarter, impacted by exceptional loss on tax provisions. Year-on-year growth in profit was 115 percent.
Net profit increased to Rs 610 crore from Rs 583.4 crore and quarter-on-quarter revenues climbed 2.8 percent (13.3 percent year-on-year), higher-than-expected, to Rs 21,939 crore in the quarter ended December 2013.
The CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts had expected the company to report net profit of Rs 1,016.64 crore on revenues fo Rs 21,760 crore for the quarter.
Tax cost for the company jumped 91.9 percent to Rs 1,657 crore during December quarter as against Rs 863.4 crore in previous quarter.
The company said an exceptional items during the quarter resulted in a net loss of Rs 221.3 crore.
Exceptional items comprised of:(i) Gain of Rs 67.4 crore due to reversal of exceptional charge recorded in previous quarters, (ii) Tax expense of Rs 276.2 crore made up of (a) tax provision of Rs 257.2 crore on account of settlement of various disputes and (b) a charge of Rs 19 crore in respect of (i) above, and(iii) A charge of Rs 12.5 crore being share of minority interests in respect of (i) and (ii) above.
On the operational front, consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew 0.8 percent quarter-on-quarter (22.8 percent year-on-year) to Rs 7,093 crore. Operating profit margin declined 10 basis points (up 25 bps Y-o-Y) to 32.3 percent in the quarter gone by.
Minutes of usage climbed to 434 units during December quarter as against 437 units in September quarter.
India average revenue per user increased to Rs 195 during October-December quarter as against Rs 192 in previous quarter and Rs 185.3 in a year ago period.
Consolidated mobile internet revenues, which contributes over one-third of overall incremental revenue, grew 105.2 percent on yearly basis to Rs 1,736 crore.
Mobile voice realisation in India improved by 1.96 paise on a Y-o-Y basis to 37.13 paise and minutes grew by 5.9 percent Y-o-Y.
Data customer base increased by 31.2 percent to 54.4 million customers and coupled with 54.4 percent increase in usage per customer, this led to 97 percent increase in total data traffic.
"Focus on superior internet experience has resulted in increased data adoption and usage. Data is now a huge source of revenue growth," Gopal Vittal, JMD and CEO, India operations, Bharti Airtel said.
Revenue from its direct-to-home grew 25.8 percent and Airtel business grew by 13.9 percent compared to corresponding quarter of last fiscal.
Africa operations
Revenue surged 4.1 percent sequentially.
Average revenue per user rose 1 percent (down 7 percent Y-o-Y) to USD 5.8 from USD 5.7 quarter-on-quarter while mobile voice pricing stood at 3.31 cents per minute.
Customer base in Africa rose 3 percent quarter-on-quarter (11 percent Y-o-Y) to 6.83 crore. Net addition during the quarter was 19 crore.
"International operations continued to achieve steady revenue growth. Africa had another quarter of strong growth from the 3G/Data and Airtel Money services across all its markets," Manoj Kohli, MD and CEO, international operations, Bharti Airtel said.
He expects this trend to sustain due to large investments in brand and network.
During the quarter, revenue from international operations climbed 3.9 percent to USD 1,237 million compared to same quarter last year. EBITDA grew 2.3 percent year-on-year to USD 306 million.
Consolidated net debt reduced to USD 9,313 million resulting in the net debt to EBITDA ratio (last twelve months) improving to 2.06 times during December quarter compared to 2.20 times at the end of the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, in the quarter gone by, the company’s subsidiary, Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV successfully raised euro 750 million through issuance of 4 percent guaranteed notes due 2018 at an issue price of 99.756 percent.
In January, 2014, it further raised euro 250 million through issuance of notes of the same series at an issue price of 100.374 percent.
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