Bharti Airtel Limited has announced its audited consolidated results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2012.
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.
Commenting on the results, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Airtel Limited, said, ?Telecom revenues in India have been depressed due to hyper-competition and recent regulatory and tax developments. I am happy to note that, despite these adverse developments, Airtel has kept its focus on network expansion, market investments, superior customer experience and new product innovations. I am also pleased to see that India data pick-up is accelerating with over 38 million customers and mobile data revenues up by 44 per cent. On the African side, we are gaining market share, benefitting from the significant investments made in the last two years.?
