Bharti Infratel reported a 23 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 7,987 million for the third quarter ended (QE) December 2019 from Rs 6,484 million in QE December 2018.
During the period, Infratel witnessed a dip of 4.2 per cent in its total income at Rs 16,845 million from Rs 17,595 million during the same quarter last year.
The company’s net income from operations rose 1 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis to Rs 36,733 million for the reported quarter. Further, Infratel’s consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 24 per cent to Rs 18,831 million on year while the operating cash flow was up 8 per cent on-year to Rs 11,814 million.
The company added 823 towers quarterly leading to an installed base of 94,244. This has also led to a strong uptick in sharing revenue per tower by 7 per cent on an annual basis. Furthermore, Infratel added net 744 co-locations during QE December 2019 taking the total number to 174,150. However, on an annual basis, it lost 299 co-locations, which is a substantially muted loss as compared to the quarters gone by in this fiscal.
Commenting on the results, Akhil Gupta, Chairman, Bharti Infratel Limited, said, “We witnessed yet another quarter of improved net additions on both towers and co-locations during the quarter ended December 31, 2019, with net tower additions being the highest in four years on a quarterly basis. As a result, the company has been able to largely recover the revenue and profitability that was lost due to large exits of co-locations that it witnessed over the last few quarters.”
Further, he added, “The telecom industry continues to have financial uncertainty due to the recent AGR case judgement by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, but for which we believe that the growth of towers and co-locations would have been even stronger.”
