Bharti's market cap at Rs 1,00,000 crore

Rex Mathew
28 October 2006

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest private sector telecom company, has come out with second quarter numbers, which are considerably above market expectations. Strong volume growth and efficiency gains through higher economies of scale have helped the company to achieve very strong bottom line growth.

To make it sweeter, the stock rallied more than 4.5 per cent yesterday after the announcement of results. In intra-day trades, total market capitalisation of Bharti crossed the Rs 1,00,000 crore mark – becoming only the 7th Indian company to do so after ONGC, Reliance Industries, Infosys, TCS, Wipro and NTPC. Wipro, at the moment, is not in this league as the stock is currently trading below its lifetime highs set during the tech boom.

For the quarter ended 30 September 2006, Bharti has reported a net profit of Rs 933.8 crore, or Rs 4.93 per share, a growth of 79.27 per cent from Rs 520.9 crore, or Rs 2.79 per share, reported for the previous year quarter. Consolidated revenues increased 60.83 per cent to Rs 4,357.1 crore from Rs 2,709.1 crore.

On a sequential basis net profits have increased 23.67 per cent from Rs 755.1 crore or Rs 3.98 per share reported for the previous quarter ended June 2006 on a revenue growth of 12.98 per cent from Rs 3,856.4 crore.

Operating profits, or EBITDA, increased 66.73 per cent to Rs 1,702.5 crore from Rs 1,021.1 crore for the previous year quarter. Operating margins as a percentage of revenues increased to 39.07 per cent from 37.69 per cent a year ago. For the previous quarter ended June 2006, operating margins were 38.95 per cent.

Cost of services provided, including depreciation, increased 55 per cent over the previous year quarter while selling and general expenses went up by 78 per cent. Total operating expenses went up by 58 per cent over the previous year quarter.