Bharti Airtel’s third quarter net profit up 2.3 per cent

Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel today reported a low but better than expected net profit growth of 2.3 per cent at Rs2,209.80 crore for the quarter ending 31 December 2009, weighed down heavily by low tariff and severe competition.

Total revenue, using US accounting rules, rose over 1 per cent to Rs9,772.20 crore during the December quarter, from Rs9,633.4 crore in the corresponding period last year, Bharti Airtel said in a statement from New Delhi.

Bharti Airtel Group chief executive officer Manoj Kohli

''In a hypercompetitive situation like we are witnessing now in the industry, we have retained our revenue market share at 32 per cent and have a very strong EBITDA margin at 40 per cent, which shows our strong performance,'' Bharti Airtel Group chief executive officer Manoj Kohli told reporters.

He said that the trend of adding 15-16 million subscribers a month is not adding more revenue to the industry, as the revenue earnings per customer is less. ''Real customer addition will be in single digits. We do not see customers holding multiple SIM cards adding to revenue,'' he said.

Kohli added that Airtel is expecting more competition from the new players who are likely to start services in the next few months.

As per Indian accounting norms, Bharti Airtel posted over 13 per cent increase in net profit atRs 2,236.90 crore. The total income rose to Rs10,327.57 crore during the quarter from Rs9,688.5 crore in the year-ago period.