Bharti Infratel reported revenue of Rs 3,600 crore (–2 percent) and EBITDA of Rs 1,534 crore with operating margin of 42.6 percent during Q4 fiscal 2018-19.
Bharti Infratel’s total revenue from operations for the fiscal year was Rs 14,582.3 crore (+1 percent).
Bharti Infratel reported capital expenditure (Capex) of Rs 1,796.1 crore during the last fiscal.
The Indian telecom tower company achieved net profit of Rs 608 crore despite major co-location exits due to consolidation in telecom industry.
Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers have lost approximately 20 percent of opening co-locations during the year translating to approximately 75,000 co-locations on an overall basis and approximately 40,000 co-locations on consolidated basis, mainly due to merger of Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
“We believe that with rapidly growing data demand, large network rollouts will be required, indicating strong potential for the company in coming years and we are already seeing some early signs of acceleration in network rollouts,” Akhil Gupta, chairman of Bharti Infratel.
The merger process of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers is on track and it would be completed in the next few months.
Bharti Infratel owned and operated 40,388 towers with 76,341 co-locations in 11 telecom circles. Indus Towers operated 123,546 towers with 229,483 co-locations in 15 telecom circles.
Net co-locations reduced year were 32,873 on consolidated basis and 12,324 on standalone basis. Gross exits reduced have impact of 39,752 on consolidated basis and 14,619 on standalone basis. This includes 4,308 co-locations on consolidated basis for which actual exits have not happened at quarter end.
Operating expenses for the fiscal year were Rs 8,509 crore, or 58 percent of its consolidated revenues from operations.
Bharti Infratel’s expenses on power and fuel reached Rs 5,603.6 crore. The other expenses incurred were rent of Rs 1,255.1 crore, repair & maintenance (operations and maintenance costs of the network) of Rs 840.3 crore and employee benefits expenses of Rs 491.4 crore during the last fiscal year.
The telecom tower company operates ~3,100 solar-powered sites across the network on a consolidated basis, which helps in reducing noise and emissions from DG sets and also in reducing dependency on diesel.
