Bharti Airtel profits rise in Q3 results despite Africa's lag

BANGALORE, INDIA: With the increase in smartphones and data usage, Bharti Airtel has surely benefited out of it. The company has made a consolidated profit of Rs. 1,436 cr in the third quarter which ended in December 2014.

Total revenue of the company grew by 5.8 percent that is  to Rs 23,228.1 cr in the reported quarter. Gopal Vittal, managing director, India & South Asia, said: "Revenue growth in India has continued to accelerate. We remain focused on driving top line through stepped-up customer acquisitions, with continued focus on churn, ensuring pricing stability and path-breaking innovations in mobile data. Our mobile data growth is at 74.3 percent in third quarter."

Barti Airtel was led by increase in data customer base by 38.1 percent and higher usage per customer by 22.6 percent. The company stands tall with a customer base of 31.29 cr across 20 countries at the end of this quarter.

From mobile data services, consolidated revenue grew 61.9 per cent to Rs 2,872 crore. At Rs 2,114 crore, this was a growth of 74.3 per cent over a year in India, on the back of increase in usage per customer by 38.3 per cent and increase in the data customer base by 32.4 per cent, the company said.

Also according to the report, revenues of Bharti Airtel in Africa grew by 3.9 percent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in local currency terms, but the reported revenues were down by 5.3 percent due to appreciation of the US dollar.