Bharti Airtel Q3 net up marginally at Rs 2,209 cr

Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel today reported a low net profit growth of 2.3 per cent at Rs 2,209.80 crore for the quarter ending December 31, 2009, weighed down heavily by low tariff and severe competition.

Total revenue, as per the US accounting rules, rose over one per cent to Rs 9,772.20 crore during the December quarter, from Rs 9,633.4 crore in the corresponding period last year, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

"In a hyper competitive situation like (the one) we are witnessing now in the industry, we have retained our revenue market share at 32 per cent and have a very strong EBITDA margin at 40 per cent, which shows our strong performance," Bharti Airtel Group CEO Manoj Kohli told reporters.

He said that the trend of adding 15-16 million subscriber a month is not adding more revenue to the industry as the revenue earnings customers are less.

"Real customers addition will be in single digit. We do not see customers holding multiple SIM cards adding to revenue," he said.

In a weak broader market shares of Bharti gained 2.37 per cent over last close to trade at Rs 329.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Kohli added that Airtel is expecting more competition from the new player, who are likely to start services in the next few months.

As per Indian accounting norms, Bharti Airtel posted over 13 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 2,236.90 crore. The total income rose to Rs 10,327.57 crore during the quarter from Rs 9,688.5 crore in the year-ago period.

Kohli said the hyper competition will continue for a couple of more quarter and the industry will see stability in the market only in the second half of 2010.

He said that the existing operators are going to fight out  these competitions from new players in lower tariff and emerge stronger. 

"I think the new players are going to face a lot of difficulties in terms of sustaining  Themselves," Kohli added.