Bharti Airtel has reported a 29 per cent drop in net profit for the quarter ended September at Rs. 512 crore, its 15th consecutive quarter of declining profit. The net profit stood at Rs. 721.2 crore in the year-ago period.
“The continued depreciation of the Indian rupee has resulted in forex restatement and derivative losses of Rs. 342 crore versus Rs. 25 crore loss in the second quarter of the previous year. Consequently, the consolidated net income came in at Rs. 512 crore, as against Rs. 721 crore in the corresponding quarter last year,” the company said.
Company’s consolidated revenue grew 10 per cent to Rs 21,342.80 crore from Rs 19,408.50 crore in the year-ago period.
Mobile internet revenues stood at Rs. 1,503 crore, growing more than 100 per cent year-on-year. It accounted for 39.1 per cent of the overall incremental revenue.
Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said, “Mobile internet is now a major engine of growth for Airtel across all geographies. Our sustained investment in this segment will further enhance customer experience and seamless coverage.”
The margin of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, or EBITA, was 32 per cent in the quarter compared with 30.6 per cent a year ago.
Bharti Airtel added about 25 lakh mobile users in the country during the quarter for a total of 19.34 crore subscribers at the end of September. Monthly churn or attrition of users improved to 3.2 per cent from 8.5 per cent in the same period last year. The voice usage per customer increased by 20 minutes per month to 437 minutes in the quarter from 417 minutes in the second quarter of 2012-13.
