Indias top telecom firm Bharti Airtel surprised Dalal Street on Thursday by reporting a profit for the quarter ended September 30, thanks to a deferred tax gain.
The companys PAT fell 65.36 per cent to Rs 118.80 crore in Q2FY19 over Rs 343 crore in the same period last year. Analysts in an ET NOW poll had estimated a loss of Rs 828.30 crore for the quarter.
Consolidated revenue of the company slipped to Rs 20,422.50 crore against Rs 21,776.90 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Revenue dipped 6.20 per cent on account of sustained pricing pressure in India mobile segment, the company said in a release.
Airtel reported a deferred tax write-back of Rs 2,632.60 crore for the September quarter.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) of the company declined 28.80 per cent to Rs 101 for the quarter ended September 30. The figure stood at Rs 142 in the same period last year.
Ebitda slipped 20.70 per cent to Rs 6,343 crore in Q2FY19 over Rs 8,004 crore in Q2FY18. EBIT/Total revenue declined to 5.30 per cent for the quarter against 15.10 per cent last year.
On companys performance, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said: “Led by our focus on quality customers through simplified pricing and content partnerships, Arpu decline has moderated in this quarter. We remain focused on driving quality base growth with value adding propositions for our customers.”
As of September 30, the company had 445 million customers, an increase of 14.2 per cent compared with 390 million last year.
Total minutes of usage on the network during the quarter were 759 billion, representing a growth of 54.9 per cent against 490 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.
Mobile Data traffic grew 223.2 per cent to 2,758 billion MBs during the quarter over 853 billion MBs last year.
Consolidated net debt increased by Rs 10,301.40 crore to Rs 1,13,204.20 crore against Rs 1,029,02.80 crore sequentially.
The net debt-ebitda ratio (LTM) as of September 30 was at 4.25 times compared with 3.61 times as of June 30 end.
The net debt-equity ratio was at 1.64 times as of September 30 compared with 1.48 times at the June quarter.
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