Bharti Airtel, a leading integrated telecommunications company announced on Tuesday a 40.22 % rise in consolidated first quarter profit to Rs 15.54 billion as compared to net profit Rs 11.08 billion in the same period last year. Analysts, on average, expected Bharti Airtel to report a profit of Rs 13.27 billion.
Consolidated net sales was at Rs 236.81 billion for the quarter ended Jun. 30, 2015 as compared to Rs 230.05 billion in the same period last year, representing an increase of 2.94%.
The consolidated EBITDA margin rose 1.1% and mobile data revenues stood at Rs 34.59 billion, up 56.9% from the same period last year.
Bharti Airtel's overall customer base stood at 331.9 million across 20 countries, up 10.7% Y-o-Y. In terms of customer base, Airtel ranks No.3 worldwide.
Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said, ''The year has begun on a healthy note, with underlying revenue growth accelerating to 12.7% in India. Our customer base has continued to steadily expand. Mobile minutes and data traffic have grown by 7.4% and 83.4% respectively.''
Christian de Faria, MD and CEO, Africa, said, ''In the first quarter, Airtel Africa has set the pace for the year, with customer base growing by 13.4% to 78.3 million. Customer churn has been reduced from 7.0% to 5.4%, as a result of customer lifecycle management programmes.''
Shares of the company declined Rs 5.25, or 1.25%, to settle at Rs 413.70. The total volume of shares traded was 304,569 at the BSE (Tuesday).