Telecom operator Bharti Airtel's third quarter earnings are expected to be hit by sharp pricing pressure led by Reliance Jio’s free offer and negative impact of demonetisation.
Profit is likely to fall 28 percent sequentially to Rs 1,055 crore and revenue may slip 2.3 percent to Rs 24,077 crore in Q3, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.
Operating profit during the quarter is seen falling 6.4 percent to Rs 8,857 crore and margin may shrink 160 basis points to 36.8 percent compared with previous quarter.
Its India business may decline 2.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 14,348 crore with operating profit declining 10.8 percent at Rs 5,572 crore and margin contraction of 360 basis points at 38.8 percent in Q3.
Key performance indicators - Volumes may increase 2.1 percent sequentially to 320 billion minutes and minutes of usage may grow by half a percent to 408 while average revenue per user is likely to fall 6.6 percent to Rs 175.5 and voice revenue per minute may decline 3.7 percent to 31.2 paise in the quarter ended December 2016.
Africa business may show 2.4 percent growth during the quarter at Rs 5,431 crore with operating profit at Rs 1,252 crore (up 2.2 percent QoQ) and margin at 23.05 percent (against 23.08 percent in Q2).
Africa margin has gone up for the last four consecutive quarters from 20.4 percent to 23.09 percent in Q2.Disclosure: Reliance Industries, the parent company of Reliance Jio, owns Network 18 that publishes Moneycontrol.com.
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