Airtel reports first profit rise in four years, but lags analysts’ expectation

Airtel reports first profit rise in four years, but lags analysts’ expectationAfter suffering profit declines for fifteen quarters in a row, telecommunication services provider Bharti Airtel reported an increase of more than 100 per cent in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2013.

Airtel said its net profit more than doubled to Rs 610 crore in the October to December quarter. In the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the company had reported a profit of Rs 284 crore.

The company's quarterly profit got a boost from impressive growth in mobile data revenue as well as from better realization from voice services. However, the company could not meet analysts' average net profit projection of Rs 1,044 crore for the quarter under review.

Consolidated mobile internet revenue jumped to Rs 1,736 crore year-on-year and accounted for more than 33 per cent of the company's overall incremental revenue. Data accounted for 10 per cent of the revenue from mobile services in the country, considerably up from 6 per cent in the year-ago period.

Gopal Vittal, Joint MD and CEO at Airtel, said, "Our focus on superior internet experience has resulted in increased data adoption and usage. Data is now a huge source of revenue growth."

The company also enjoyed an improvement in voice service realization per minute 37.13 paise, up 1.96 paise from the year-ago period.

Total revenue Jumped 13 per cent year-on-year, from Rs 19,362 crore to Rs 21,939 crore. The margin of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation & amortization (EBITDA) improved from 30 per cent to 32 per cent.