Bharti net at Rs 239 cr

Bharti Tele-Ventures has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 239.04 crore during the first quarter of the current financial year, which is an eleven-fold rise from the Rs 20.5 crore it posted in April-June 2003.

Its revenues, as per the Indian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles were Rs 1,727.58 crore during the quarter, compared with Rs 1,036.05 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to Rs 634.99 crore in April-June 2004.

The Bharti Tele-Ventures scrip, however, fell nearly 8 per cent to Rs 152 on the Bombay Stock Exchange as investors had snapped up the shares over the past few days in anticipation of a better performance.

Bharti Tele-Ventures' consolidated figures include the performance of its subsidiaries, Bharti Cellular and Bharti Infotel. Excluding their numbers, Bharti Tele-Ventures reported a loss of Rs 26.19 crore in the quarter against a net profit of Rs 9 lakh in April-June 2003.

The company's standalone revenue during April-June 2004 increased 10.55 per cent to Rs 9.43 crore from Rs 8.53 crore in the same quarter last year. The losses are largely due to higher interest charges of Rs 23.29 crore during April-June this year.

While Bharti Tele-Ventures has reduced its staff costs by 11.8 per cent to Rs 6.65 crore during April-June 2004, its administration and other expenditure more than doubled to Rs 4.23 crore from Rs 2.03 crore in the same quarter last year.

Bharti offers services in 16 telecom circles and is planning to enter new circles like Bihar, Orissa and Jammu & Kashmir, for which it proposes to invest around Rs 3,500 crore.

Bharti Tele-Ventures' consolidated EBITDA as a percentage of total revenue was 37 per cent in June 2004 compared with 27 per cent in June 2003. The net debt to annualised EBITDA ratio in the quarter ended June 30, 2004, was 1.54.

During the first three months of the current fiscal, Bharti Tele-Ventures' consolidated cash profit from operations stood at Rs 527.61 crore against Rs 216.07 crore in the corresponding period last year.