Bharti Infratel Q4 net up 19% at Rs662 crore

Bharti Infratel has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs662 crore in the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2016, a 19 per cent rise from Rs558 crore recorded during the same period a year ago. The telecom tower company's revenues rose 7 per cent to Rs3,162 crore, against Rs2,947 crore recorded during the year-ago quarter.

Separately, the company's board has approved a buyback of Rs2,000 crore. It also proposed a final dividend of Rs3 per equity share for the year ended 31 March 2016. The total cash outgo for the dividend and buyback inclusive of Rs116 crore.

The buyback will be executed through tender offer method on the stock exchanges, the company said in a statement.

The payment of the proposed final dividend and the share buyback are subject to approval of the shareholders in the ensuing annual general meeting of the company.

''As anticipated, the year 2015-16 witnessed a major growth in rollout of mobile broadband networks by the telecom operators, with the number of 3G and 4G installations growing over three times the previous year,'' said Akhil Gupta, chairman at Bharti Infratel.

''We are confident that as more operators step up their rollouts, this trend would further accelerate in the coming year. Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers being the leaders are fully geared to serve their customers' demand and are in the best position to capitalise on this growth,'' he added.

The company had a total of 88,808 towers with an average sharing factor of 2.19, while its operating free cash flows stood at Rs937 crore, up 26 per cent year-on-year.