Bharti Airtel has posted 17.1 percent increase in consolidated income in Q3 FY
2011-12 to Rs 18,477 crore.
India and South Asia showed 12.1
percent revenue growth aided by improvement in realization rates. Africa
revenues grew 16.1 percent to $1.05 billion.
Consolidated EBITDA margins for the
quarter increased to 32.2 percent. Margin in Africa improved to 26.7 percent in
Q3 FY 2012 from 19.1 percent in Q3 FY 2011.
Higher tax provisions impacted
Airtel’s net income to nosedive by 22 percent to Rs 1,011 crore in Q3 2011-12 from Rs 1,303 crore in the
corresponding quarter previous fiscal.
I am pleased that investments in
branding and networks continue to be our focus in India, as we enhance customer
experience for voice quality and cater to the ever increasing demand for data.
These investments are resulting in healthy growth of mobile revenues. In
Africa, we have crossed the 50 million customer milestone and are now one of
the fastest growing telecom companies in the continent,” said Sunil Bharti
Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Airtel.
Non Voice revenues grew 20.4 percent to Rs 2,801 crore.
Overall customer base stands at 243 million, across 19
countries.
India and South Asia region posted 16 percent increase in
mobile user base, while 21 percent (y-o-y) was the growth in Africa.
Bharti raised call rates 20 percent in most parts of India
last year, after a price war sparked by the entry of Telenor and NTT DoCoMo into
the world’s second-largest wireless market drove tariffs to less than a penny a
minute. The mobile-phone carrier added fewer new customers in the quarter than
smaller rivals Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular, according to
Bloomberg.
