Bharti Airtel gains after Q2 results

Bharti Airtel rose 2.87% to Rs 351 at 9:56 IST on BSE after consolidated net profit fell 29% to Rs 512 crore on 9.9% increase in total revenues to Rs 21324 crore in Q2 September 2013 over Q2 September 2012.

The result was announced during trading hours today, 30 October 2013.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 22.91 points, or 0.11%, to 20,951.92.

On BSE, 5.78 lakh shares were traded in the counter compared with average volume of 3.51 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 359.60 and a low of Rs 335 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 370.40 on 25 January 2013. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 266.50 on 29 October 2012.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 29 October 2013, rising 4.95% compared with the Sensex's 6.09% rise. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 2.16% as against Sensex's 6.82% rise.

The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 1998.70 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5.

Bharti Airtel's consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) rose 15.1% to Rs 6832 crore in Q2 September 2013 over Q2 September 2012. EBITDA margin increased to 32% in Q2 September 2013 compared with 30.6% in Q2 September 2012.

The company said its mobile internet revenues grew more than 100% to Rs 1503 crore in Q2 September 2013 over Q2 September 2012 (year-on-year), accounting for 39.1% of the overall incremental revenue. Revenues were also enhanced by strong growths of 28.8% in Digital TV, 20.8% in airtel business (B2B), and 54.4% in South Asia.

Mobile voice realisation in India improved by 1.31 paise on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis (36.74 paise in Q2 September 2013 vs 35.43 paise in Q2 September 2012), together with an increase in voice usage per customer by 20 minutes per month (up from 417 minutes in Q2 September 2012 to 437 minutes per subscriber in Q2 September 2013). Data usage per customer has gone up by 98 megabytes (MBs) (from 133 MBs in Q2 September 2012 to 231 MBs per customer in Q2 September 2013). Consequently, ARPU has moved up by Rs 15 to Rs 192 in Q2 September 2013.

International revenues grew by 17.9% Y-o-Y and 18.3% quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) in rupee terms with Africa growing by 16.1% Y-o-Y & 18.5% Q-o-Q while South Asia grew by 54.4% Y-o-Y and 16% Q-o-Q. Africa revenue in constant dollar terms grew by 5.4% on sequential quarter basis led by a strong 28.2% increase in data revenues.

Mobile voice pricing in Africa remained stable at 3.30 cents per minute. Net revenue in Africa (after interconnect costs and cost of goods sold) has grown by 20.7% Y-o-Y in rupee terms.

Consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization) grew by 15.1% Y-o-Y at Rs 6832 crore with margin expanding to 32% from 30.6% in the corresponding quarter last year, driven by India EBITDA margin improvement from 32.6% to 34.8%.

The much improved operational performance is reflected in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of Rs 2893 crore, representing a 28.7% Y-o-Y growth and 2% EBIT margin improvement.

The continued depreciation of the Indian Rupee has resulted in forex restatement and derivative losses of Rs 342 crore (vs. Rs 25 crore loss for Q2 September 2012). Consequently, the consolidated net income came in at Rs 512 crore, as against Rs 721 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated Operating Free Cash Flows for the quarter were at Rs 4693 crore, reflecting a robust growth of 117.1% Y-o-Y.

The company's consolidated net debt has reduced to $9697 million resulting in the net debt to EBITDA ratio (USD terms) improving to 2.18 times as compared to 2.59 times at the end of the same quarter last year.

In a statement, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel Limited, said: "Mobile internet is now a major engine of growth for Airtel across all geographies. Our sustained investment in this segment will further enhance customer experience and seamless coverage. The revenue growth in Africa reflects the inherent potential in the world's most promising continent. I am also pleased to see the evolution of Airtel Money into a significant service in geographies which are relatively under-banked."

Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had nearly 280 million customers across its operations at the end of September 2013.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News