Airtel Q1 net falls 32 p.c. YoY at Rs 16.82 bn

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's top mobile operator, today said that its profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2010 stood at  Rs 16.82 billion ($361.7 million), a fall of 32 per cent compared to the year-ago period. The result includes its African operations which it acquired in June in a $9 billion deal.

In the year-ago quarter, Bharti had posted a profit of  Rs 24.75 billion under international accounting standards. In the previous quarter, the profit was at Rs 20.55 billion ($461 million).

Total revenue for the quarter rose 17.4 per cent to Rs 122.31 billion from Rs 104.14 billion a year ago.

"Our business in India and South Asia got off to a solid start with robust revenue growth and healthy margins," Bharti chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said. "This reaffirms our conviction that leaders emerge stronger in a hyper-competitive market."

Bharti said the days of stiff price wars are over now and its average minutes of usage per user rose for the second successive quarter, after declining for six consecutive quarters. The minutes of usage per user increased to 480 from 468 in the fourth quarter, the telecom player said.

Bharti acquired the African operations in June from Kuwaiti telcoms group Zain in a $9 billion deal to become the world's fifth-biggest mobile operator.

Bharti, with about 137 million users in India controls more than 21 percent of the market of 635 million. It is also present in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, though the operations are tiny compared with India.

Bharti Airtel also said it would acquire Telecom Seychelles for US$62 million.

(With inputs from Reuters)