Bharti Infratel Q2

Bharti Infratel, the telecom infrastructure arm of the country's number one telecom operator Bharti Airtel, has posted a 67.7 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs465.2 crore during the second quarter ended September 30, 2014.

The company has posted a net profit of Rs 277.4 crore during the same period a year ago. Its total income rose to Rs 3,043.8 crore during the period under review, as against Rs2,740.6 crore recorded during the comparable period of previous financial year.

''The telecom industry is entering into a phase of growth led by robust data uptake. The auctions in February 2014 gave lot of confidence and stability to the operators and a testimony to the fact is addition of close to 4,000 tenancies in this quarter for Bharti Infratel, an increase of over 100 per cent as compared to the same period last year,'' Akhil Gupta, chairman of Bharti Infratel, said in the statement.

''Bulk of the incremental tenancies are on account of roll-out of data networks and we believe that the upcoming spectrum auctions in February 2015 will further accelerate this trend,'' Gupta added.

On a standalone basis, the company posted a net profit of Rs 527.2 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2014, compared with Rs1,483 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013. Total income rose to Rs 1,717.5 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2014, compared with Rs1,259.4 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2013.

The company's total tower base stood at 84,303 with an average tenancy of 2.05 (operators per tower) as of September end.