Airtel Q3 net falls 41 p.c. YoY

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile phone carrier, posted a bigger-than-expected 41 per cent fall in quarterly profit, as weaker margins from its African operations and currency fluctuations took a toll.

The outlook for India's mobile market — the world's second biggest and the fastest growing by wireless customers — has improved after prices steadied last year following cut rate competition which sent call pricing tumbling in late 2009.

But Africa remains a worry for Bharti where it acquired the loss-making telecoms operations of Zain in 15 countries in a $9 billion deal in June to become the world's fifth-biggest wireless carrier.

It competes in India with 14 other companies including Reliance Communications and Vodafone.

Shares in Bharti, valued at about $26 billion, erased an early fall of 3.3 per cent and climbed 3 per cent to Rs 323.80 as analysts said operational metrics seemed to be getting back on track.

Bharti, 32.2-per cent owned by Southeast Asia's top telecoms firm SingTel, said consolidated net profit fell to Rs 1303 crore ($286 million) for its fiscal third-quarter ended December, from Rs 2195 crore a year ago, based on international accounting standards. In Q2, Airtel had posted a net profit of Rs 1,661 crore.

Revenue rose 53 per cent to Rs 15,756 crore from Rs 10,305 crore a year ago.

A Reuters poll of 12 brokerages had on average expected net profit to fall 26 per cent to Rs 1625 crore on revenue of Rs 15,540 crore for the New Delhi-based firm that operates in 19 countries across Asia and Africa with 199.6 million mobile customers at end-December.

Investors are awaiting the take-off of third-generation (3G) mobile services that would boost carriers' revenue from data in India where voice services contribute close to 90 per cent of the revenue for cellular companies.