Bharti Infratel Q1 net profit up 39% to Rs 887 cr

Telecom infrastructure firm Bharti Infratel on July 24 posted a 39 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 887 crore for the June quarter on account of network expansion by mobile service providers.

The company had recorded a net profit of Rs 638 crore in the same period a year ago.

The consolidated revenue, however, increased by only 1 per cent to Rs 3,712 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 3,674 crore in the corresponding period of 2018-19.

"We are pleased to note that after negative trend in net co-locations for the last six consecutive quarters due to consolidation in the telecom industry, we had net additions in co-locations this quarter.

"We hope and believe that this trend would continue as the operators post consolidation and raising of significant capital recently will now focus on fresh rollouts of networks to increase both coverage and capacity which is the need of the hour," Akhil Gupta, chairman, Bharti Infratel Limited, said in a statement.

During the quarter, the company reported reduction in 956 co-locations -- which represent the number of base stations per tower.

Bharti Infratel said that as on June 30, 2019, there were cumulative 3,566 co-locations for which it received exit notices from telecom operators but actual exits have not happened.

The company recorded increase of 873 mobile towers on year-on-year basis to 92,632 at the end of June 2019 from 91,759 a year ago.

However, the co-locations reduced by 27,531 to 173,247.

Shares of Bharti Infratel closed at Rs 264.1 a unit, up by 0.88 per cent at BSE on Wednesday.