Bharti Airtel Q3 Results: PAT jumps 4 times sequentially to Rs 14,781 crore, beats expectations

Bharti Airtel on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 14,781.2 crore for the quarter ended December 31, driven by exceptional items owing to ethe consolidation of Indus Towers.

The private sector telecom service provider's net profit market a more than four-time increase over the previous quarter.

Bharti Airtel said that before exceptional items, its consolidated net income stood at Rs 5,514 crore.

Its revenue stood at Rs 45,129.3 crore for the third quarter of the current financial year, as against Rs 41,473.3 crore for the previous three months, according to a regulatory filing.

According to Zee Business, Bharti Airtel was estimated to register a net profit of Rs 5,200 crore and revenue of Rs 44,800 crore for the December quarter.

The company said strong underlying momentum in the country along with sustained constant currency growth witnesed in Africa and the consolidation of Indus Towers aided its overall revenue. Telecom infra firm Indus Towers became a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel last year.

Bharti Airtel India Business

Revenue from Bharti Airtel's India business stood at Rs 34,654 crore, up 9.8 per cent sequentially, the telecom firm said.

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Bharti Airtel clinched 1 13 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase in its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to Rs 24,880 crore for the quarter ended December 31.

Its margin—a key measure of profitability—came in at 55.1 per cent in the third quarter, an improvement of 200 basis points (bps) over the previous three months, according to the filing.

Zee Business analysts had pegged Bharti Airtel's EBITDA at Rs 24,200 crore and margin at 54 per cent.

Bharti Airtel Management Commentary

"We added 6.5 Mn smartphone users underpinned by our focus on acquiring quality customers and portfolio premiumization. Homes business saw further step up in customer additions with acceleration of FWA expansion. Airtel Business delivered stable performance but continues to remain challenged. We are in the middle of comprehensive re-tooling of our Airtel Business portfolio by stepping-up investments in digital services across Cloud, Security and IoT while shedding very low margin commodity voice and wholesale business," said Gopal Vittal, Vice-Chairman and MD, Bharti Airtel.

"This is likely to impact the top line of this business in the coming quarters but will have an insignificant impact on the margins. Our balance sheet remains solid, supported by robust cash generation, prudent capital allocation and continued deleveraging. During the quarter, we prepaid another tranche of Rs 3,626 crore of high-cost spectrum dues. At the same time, we believe the industry needs further tariff repair to ensure sustained investments and long term value creation," Vittal added.

Bharti Airtel Profitability

Bharti Airtel said its mobile average revenue per user (ARPU)—a key measure of profitability for businesses that rely heavily on income emanating from subscribers—improved to Rs 245 in Q3 from Rs 233 in Q2.

Bharti Airtel Share Price

Earlier on Thursday, the Bharti Airtel stock ended 2.5 per cent lower at Rs 1,619.6 apiece on BSE.

Bharti Airtel shares have rewarded investors with a 43 per cent return in a year, outperfroming gains of 8.1 per cent and 14.8 per cent in the Sensex and BSE Telecom indices respectively.

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