New Delhi: Country's largest telecom company Bharti Airtel Tuesday reported a 30.5 percent jump in its March quarter's net profit at Rs 1,255 crore, buoyed by a robust customer growth and rise in mobile data revenue.
The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company had reported a net profit of Rs 962 crore for the corresponding period last year.
Total revenue of the firm rose 3.6 percent to Rs 23,016 crore for the reported quarter as compared with Rs 22,219 crore in the year-ago period, Airtel said in a statement.
The company said changes in inter-connect usage charges (IUC) prescribed by regulator Trai, effective March 1, have led to drop in gross revenue by Rs 144.5 crore in the current quarter with a marginal impact on net revenues.
On yearly basis, the net profit soared 86.9 percent to Rs 5,183 crore for FY 2014-15 as compared with Rs 2,773 crore in the previous fiscal.
Total revenue for the entire 2014-15 fiscal rose 7.3 percent to Rs 92,039 crore as against Rs 85,746 crore in the preceding year.
Net debt of the company stood at Rs 66,841.7 crore at the end of March 2015.
The company said consolidated mobile data revenues for the March quarter at Rs 3,085 crore grew by 59.1 percent year-on-year(y-o-y), uplifted by higher data usage and robust customer growth.
Mobile data revenue for India though grew over 70 percent to Rs 2,324 crore, mainly led by increase in usage per customer and growth in data customer base.
"The year has ended on a healthy note, with revenue growth accelerating to 12.1 percent in FY 2014-15, from 9.9 percent and 9.5 percent respectively in the previous two years," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said.
The company said consolidated capital expenditure for FY 15 stood at Rs 18,668 crore.
Airtel said forex losses for FY2014-15 stood at Rs 2,153 crore as compared with Rs 1,242 crore in FY14.
Net interest cost was down by Rs 903 crore from Rs 3,595 crore to Rs 2,693 crore in FY15.
Airtel said full year consolidated EBITDA at Rs 31,452 crore reflects an EBITDA margin of 34.2 percent, an improvement of 1.7 percent over the previous year.
Sharing the details about India, Airtel said it continues to accelerate mobile data growth with 46.4 million data customers (20.5 percent of total customers) as on March 31, 2015, representing a growth of 30.3 percent as compared to 35.6 million at the end of previous year.
"Mobile data usage per customer for the full year witnessed an increase of 38.4 percent to 587 MBs per month as compared to 424 MBs in the previous year. Data ARPU increased by 24.6 percent to Rs 160 during the year from Rs 128 in the previous year," the company said.
Mobile data revenues contribute to 17.6 percent of mobile India revenues vis-a-vis 11.5 percent in the corresponding quarter last year.
Average voice realisation per minute for India for the full year has increased marginally by 0.46 paise to 37.41 paise as compared to 36.94 paise for the full year 2013-14.
Airtel said it acquired 111.6 MHz of spectrum across 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands for a total consideration of Rs 29,129 crore in the march auction. The firm said it made upfront payment of Rs 4,725 crore in March and Rs 6,650 crore in April.
"Since 2010, in 5 separate auctions, the company has acquired spectrum valued at Rs 68,099 crore," it added.
The net loss for Africa widened to USD 183 million for the March quarter as compared to USD 105 million in the year-ago period.
"After accounting for the finance costs and taxes, the net loss for the quarter was USD 183 million as compared to a loss of USD 105 million in the corresponding quarter last year, mainly due to higher forex losses and lower EBIT," Airtel said.
Africa revenues grew by 3.4 percent y-o-y in constant currency terms, but the reported revenues were down by 12.6 percent due to significant currency movements in last 12 months.
"Airtel Africa grew net revenues by 7.5 percent in constant currency terms during FY 2014-15 amidst rather tough economic conditions - results of the commitment demonstrated by the 5,000 - strong Airtel family in Africa. This was also a year when we re-aligned our organisation to bring sharper market and customer focus," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (Africa) Christian de Faria said.
The company said with 3G operations now in all 17 African countries and with 3,088 new 3G sites, data revenues have increased by 61.3 percent in constant currency terms.
As on March 31, 2015, the company had 76.3 million customers in Africa across 17 countries.
The company's board has proposed a final dividend of Rs 2.22 per share (face value of Rs 5 per share) for the financial year ended March 31, 2015.
