India’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported its lowest quarterly profit in almost 15 years, hurt mainly by ‘below cost, artificially suppressed pricing’. Net profit plunged 77.8% to ₹82.9 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, from ₹373.4 crore a year earlier. This was the eighth consecutive decline in quarterly profit.
The telecom sector has been seeing a race to the bottom on the pricing front since the entry of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio.
‘Artificially suppressed’
“The telecom industry continues to witness below cost, artificially suppressed pricing,” Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel, said in a statement.
Industry revenues were further adversely impacted last quarter by the reduction in international termination rates, he added. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had earlier reduced the rates to 30 paise from 53 paise with effect from February.
Mr. Vittal added the company had ended the fiscal year with its highest ever capital expenditure of ₹24,000 crore.
“Our strategic investments in data capacities, innovative digital content through Airtel TV, customer-friendly bundles and upgrade programmes led to the highest ever mobile data customer additions of 15 million during the quarter.”
Full-year numbers
Bharti’s total revenue fell 10.5% to ₹19,634 crore in the quarter . For the full year, Bharti Airtel’s net profit fell by more than 71% to ₹1,099 crore, while revenue declined 12.3% to ₹83,688 crore.
The company said its overall customer base rose 12.1% to 413.8 million across 16 countries. Its consolidated net debt rose 3.83% sequentially to ₹95,228 crore.
Bharti declared a final dividend of ₹2.5 per share for the year ended March 31. Together with an interim dividend of ₹2.84 per share, total dividend for the year comes to ₹5.34 per share.
