Bharti Airtel Limited is expected to report another quarter of stellar earnings later today as the company continues to benefit from an increase in tariff rates and a high-end customer base.
The telecom major is likely to report a 154 percent sequential rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,1o6 crore for the quarter ended March, which will be the highest in 27 quarters, as per an average of estimates from six brokerages polled by Moneycontrol.
The strong growth in the bottomline of the company will come from the resilient topline performance as the consolidated net sales are set to rise 6 percent on a sequential basis to Rs 31,807 crore in the reported quarter.
Tariff hikes undertaken by the sector in the past two years are expected to fully reflect in the March quarter earnings of Bharti Airtel, said analysts. “We expect Airtel to continue to gain market share with sector-leading ARPU and subscriber growth in 4Q FY22,” said brokerage firm Credit Suisse Securities India in a note.
Unlike sector-leader Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel has seen minimal churn in its subscriber base due to the ongoing consolidation of SIM cards in the sector due to rising cost of ownership of mobile phones and network.
Analysts expect Bharti Airtel to add more than one million net new subscribers in the March quarter even as Reliance Jio lost more subscribers in the reported quarter owing to culling of low quality, dormant SIM users.
Analysts expect Bharti Airtel to report a 9.8 percent sequential increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) to Rs 179 per user, which will bring it close to achieving the crucial Rs 200 per user mark over the next two quarters.
The strong growth in ARPU will boost consolidated operating profit in the quarter by 10 percent on-year to Rs 14,702.8 crore while the company’s margins may expand 297 basis points to 50.9 percent.
On May 16, shares of Bharti Airtel ended 0.5 percent higher at Rs 693.2 on the National Stock Exchange.Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Disclosure: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.
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