Bharti Infratel down 5% as Q3 profit misses estimates

In past three months the stock has fallen 27%, as compared to 8.6% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Bharti Infratel has dipped 5% to Rs 349 on BSE in intra-day trade after the company reported 6% decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 5.85 billon in December quarter. The telecom services provider had profit of Rs 6.20 billion in the same quarter previous fiscal.

Revenue grew 7% at Rs 36.55 billion against Rs 34.01 billion in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

Analysts on an average had expected profit of Rs 7.07 billion on revenue of Rs 36.82 billion for the quarter.

“The Indian telecom industry is transforming with unprecedented consolidation. Inevitably and as anticipated, we saw exits of co-locations from such consolidating operators this quarter,” said Akhil Gupta, Chairman, Bharti Infratel.

While there would be more exits on this account in coming few quarters, we expect the overall long-term impact to be positive due to expected accelerated step-up of nationwide 4G rollouts by remaining operators, he added.

The stock has underperformed the market in past three months by falling 27%, as compared to 8.6% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.