Bharti Airtel First Quarter Profit Jumps 10%, Africa Business Lags

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications company by market share, posted a sturdy growth in profits for the first quarter, beating street estimates.

The net profit for the telecom provider grew 10.8 percent to Rs 1,462 crore from Rs 1319.5 crore in the previous quarter. This was better than the Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 1,360 crore.

Airtel reported average revenue per user of Rs 196 while its data ARPU was up Rs 21 to Rs 202. Revenue for the first quarter improved 2.4 percent sequentially to Rs 25,573 crore from Rs 24,983 crore in the March ended quarter. This figure too beat the Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 25,541 crore.

The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased 4.8 percent to Rs 9,574 crore from Rs 9,135 crore quarter on quarter

The EBITDA margin expanded by 80 basis points to 37.4 percent from 36.6 percent in the previous quarter.

The company’s wireless revenue share from India grew 2.7 percent in the first quarter to Rs 15 052 crore from Rs 14 652 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Bharti Airtel’s African revenue however declined by 3.1 percent to Rs 6,249 crore from Rs 6,451 crore.