Bharti Airtel on February 5 reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,442.2 crore for the October-December quarter, growing 54 percent from the same quarter a year ago.
Its revenue came in at Rs 38,339 crore, up 6.3 percent from Rs 36,062 crore in the year-ago period, Bharti Airtel said in an exchange filing.
The revenue met expectations, and net profit was below the Street estimates.
Brokerages expected net profit to rise 47 percent year-on-year and 14 percent sequentially to Rs 3,308.50 crore.
Analysts factored in net subscriber addition of 3.6 million and ARPU of Rs 205, up 1.1 percent QoQ given a better mix with more users converting to 4G from 2G.
The company said its mobile average revenue per user per month (ARPU) was at Rs 208 - better than estimates - and up nearly 8 percent against Rs 193 in the same quarter last year. The ARPU was driven by "consistent strategy of acquiring high value customers and improved realisations."
The stock ended the day at Rs 1,113.60 on the National Stock Exchange, up 3.23 percent.
“Revenue from India business sustained its momentum and grew sequentially by 3 percent, while the consolidated revenue was impacted by the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira and Malawian Kwacha," said Gopal Vittal, MD, Bharti Airtel.
"The quarter witnessed a strong growth trajectory for the postpaid and Homes business, while our DTH business added 388k net adds – the highest in the last 12 quarters. We remain on course with our strategy of premiumisation that helped us add 7.4 million 4G/5G customers and exit the quarter with an industry leading ARPU of Rs 208.
Vittal called for tariff revision as well, which has not happened for a while.
"Even at this ARPU, our return on capital employed, however, continues to be low at 9.4 percent. To ensure industry health, tariff repair is extremely critical,” he said.
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