Bharti Infratel slips as Q1 PAT slides 21% to Rs 704 cr

Bharti Infratel declined 2.34% to Rs 190 after consolidated net profit dropped 20.7% to Rs 703.60 crore on 5.2% fall in net sales to Rs 1,635.40 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Profit before tax (PBT) skid 12.7% to Rs 839 crore in Q1 June 2020 as against Rs 961.10 crore in Q1 June 2019. Current tax expenses for the quarter tanked 39.7% at Rs 150.30 crore as against Rs 249.40 crore in Q1 June 2019. The result was announced post market hours yesterday, 27 July 2020.

Bharti Infratel has a total tower base of 95,801 with closing sharing factor of 1.82. Consolidated EBITDA slipped 7% to Rs 1,807 crore during Q1 June 2020 as against Q1 June 2019, representing an operating margin of 51.6%. The operating free cash flows rose 5% to Rs 1,267 crore during the quarter as compared to the corresponding quarter last year.

The Return on Equity pre-tax and post-tax increased to 29.9% and 23.8% as against 33.6% and 26.9% respectively on a Y-o-Y (year-on-year) basis. The Return on Capital Employed Pre-Tax stood at 23.8% in Q1 FY21 as against 26.1% in Q1 FY20.

Due to COVID-19 outbreak, the passive infrastructure as well as active telecom operations of the company's customers were covered under essential services. Hence, the telecom industry, as a whole, is among the businesses that are least impacted due to COVID-19. Bharti Infratel has stated that there has been no significant impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the financial position and performance of the company. Further, telecom major is not expecting any significant change in estimates as of now as the company is running its business and operations as usual without any major disruptions.

Speaking on the Q1 results, Akhil Gupta, the chairman of Bharti Infratel, said: "The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has emerged as a significant global public health challenge while bringing economic activity to a virtual standstill in many countries. India is also witnessing an unprecedented crisis on account of the same. During this time, the Indian Telecom industry has been providing much needed support in the form of connectivity to the public at large. It is a matter of satisfaction for all of us at Indus and Infratel to rise to the occasion in providing vital connectivity which has kept the country connected and businesses continuing despite a very large number of people working from home. My compliments to the entire team particularly those in the field for enabling us to perform this crucial national duty."

"The resilience shown by telecom industry as a vital service even in the wake of extreme exigencies like COVID-19, bears well for the future potential of our infrastructure industry. We remain fully prepared in maintaining and strengthening our leadership position going forward," he further added.

Further, the board declared an interim dividend of Rs 2.30 per equity share for the FY 2020-21.

Meanwhile, the board has appointed Pooja Jain as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company with effective from 4 June 2020. The company accepted the resignation of D S Rawat as the managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) and as a director from the board effective from 3 August 2020.

Bharti Infratel is a provider of passive telecom infrastructure and it deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures, for various mobile operators.

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