Bharti Airtel's consolidated net profit jumps 170% in 2Q14

Riding on the back of higher voice and data business the country's leading operator by subscribers and revenue, Bharti Airtel's second quarter consolidated net profit jumped 170 per cent to Rs1,383 crore.

The New Delhi-based telecom service provider had posted a net profit of Rs512 crore for the September quarter in 2013, the company said in a statement.

The company's consolidated revenues for the quarter rose 7.1 per cent to Rs22,845 crore, compared with Rs21,324 crore posted during the same period a year ago.

Bharti Airtel's consolidated mobile data revenues grew 66.7 per cent to Rs2,540 crore from the same period a year ago, it said.

''Airtel's revenue growth in India has further accelerated to 12.3 per cent in Q2. We continue to see strong momentum in mobile data which has grown by 74 per cent in this quarter. Airtel's 4G roll-out in 15 cities is now witnessing stronger customer acceptance,'' Gopal Vittal, managing director and CEO, India & South Asia, said.

''On the regulatory front, the recent TRAI recommendations on making more contiguous spectrum available in the upcoming auctions have the potential of transforming the industry. We believe that this is critical to realise the exciting vision of 'Digital India' that the Government has articulated,'' he added.

The company's India revenues grew by 12.3 per cent with growth coming in from across segments. The growth came in from mobile (11.3 per cent), Telemedia (14.4 per cent) and Digital TV (23.5 per cent), while mobile voice realisation in India improved to 37.69 paise per minute (up 0.90 paise on a YoY basis).

Mobile data revenue at Rs1,805 crore registered a growth of 73.8 per cent, lifted by increase in data customer base by 43 per cent and higher usage per customer by 31.2 per cent.

Mobile data revenues contribute to 14.5 per cent of mobile India revenues vis-à-vis 9.4 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.

Bharti Airtel's Africa revenues grew by 6.4 per cent in local currency terms, but the dollar appreciation depressed the reported growth to 1.9 per cent YoY. Data revenues stood at $115 million with growth of 56.8 per cent, led by increase in data customer base by 50.4 per cent and higher usage per customer by 24.5 per cent.

Data revenues contribute to 10.1 per cent of overall Africa revenues vis-à-vis 6.6 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year. Active Airtel Money customers have risen to 5.3 million with the total value of transactions on the Airtel money platform crossing $3.3 billion during the quarter.

''Our robust 3G networks have supported the doubling of data volumes, and we have been gearing up for much more growth. Airtel money transaction values have also crossed $1 billion a month. More than 5 million customers are carrying out a daily average of 1.4 million transactions on Airtel Money,'' said Christian de Faria, MD and CEO, Africa.

The company's customer base rose 8.4 per cent on YoY to 303.7 million across 20 countries it has operations in.