Bharti Airtel has crossed the 200 million customer mark in India. This figure includes its customers across all service categories, including 2G, 3G and 4G mobile; fixed line and DSL broadband, IPTV and DTH services.
Commenting on the milestone, Sanjay Kapoor, chief executive officer, India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel) said, ?Bharti Airtel?s success story in India has been nothing short of exceptional. Over the years, we are proud to have been at the forefront of India?s telecom revolution and adapted our business to deliver on the market?s fast evolving customer needs. In this journey, while our first 14 years of operations saw 100 million customers joining the Bharti Airtel family, it is remarkable that our next 100 million came from the last three years alone. As a company with the vision of enriching lives, this remarkable leap to the 200 million milestone is testimonial of the customer trust we have won despite a hyper competitive market scenario ? be it for voice telephony, data services or DTH. This feat places us among the best telcos in the world and we are thankful to our customers, employees, partners and other stakeholders for entrusting their faith in Airtel along the years?.
However, while Bharti Airtel manages to maintain a leadership position in the market, it has been having a tough run financially. The company recently posted its consolidated results for the consolidated results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2012, where its net profit declined for the tenth quarter in a row.
Revenues in the quarter under consideration, on a consolidated basis, stood at Rs 193.50 billion, a 14 per cent increase over the corresponding period last year. The company?s operations in Africa increased by 31.5 per cent and mobile data revenues in India registered a 44.2 per cent increase.
Meanwhile, EBITDA margin declined by 30.2 per cent, owing to adverse regulatory and tax developments in India, enhanced market participation and planned accelerated investments in both India and Africa.
Consequently, consolidated net income stood at Rs 7.62 billion, compared to Rs 12.15 billion in the first quarter of financial year 2012.
The consolidated operating free cash flows for the quarter stood at Rs 22.73 billion, a 67.4 per cent increase ovthe corresponding period last year. The net debt-equity ratio stood at 1.38 and the net debt-EBITDA ratio was 2.54.
Mobile revenues in India during the quarter were impacted by two significant changes. First, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s guidelines pertaining to the entailed processing fees restricted the sales of combo packs, which offered bundled service propositions to augment customer value. Also, the hike in service tax, from 10.3 to 12.36 per cent, caused all telecom services to become nearly 2 per cent more expensive, with the entire additional levy being passed through to the exchequer.
