Bharti Airtel Q2 net dips 27% at Rs 1,661 cr

Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile phone operator, reported a bigger-than-expected 27 per cent fall in quarterly profit after being squeezed by a price war in the world's fastest-growing mobile market.

Bharti, 32-per cent owned by Southeast Asia's top phone firm SingTel, said second-quarter net profit including its African operations fell to Rs 1,661 crore from Rs 2,263 crore a year ago.

Total Income increased to Rs 15,231.9 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2010 from Rs 10,397.5 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

Net loss in Africa was Rs 106.3 crore against Rs 70 crore.

The results were based on international accounting standards.

In June, Bharti acquired telecoms operations in 15 African countries from Kuwaiti telcoms group Zain in a $9 billion deal, an acquisition which it said made it the world's fifth-biggest mobile operator.

Bharti Airtel had 187.7 million mobile users at the end of September, of which 40 million were in Africa, the company said on Wednesday. With more than 143 million users in India, Bharti controls over 21 per cent of the market of 670 million. It operates in 19 countries across Asia and Africa.

Shares in Bharti, valued by the market at $28.6 billion, rose 3 per cent following the earnings announcement.

Later, the shares dropped by 1.3% on weak consolidated numbers, trading at Rs 330.20 at 9.42 am