Bharti Airtel's Q2 net profit rises by 10 percent

Bharti Airtel's net profit for the second quarter (June-September) of 2015-16 increased by 10.1 percent, helped by rising data usage, a company statement said here on Monday.

The company posted net profit of Rs.1,523 crore for the second quarter 2015-16 compared to Rs.1,383 crore it logged during the corresponding period last fiscal.

The consolidated revenue for the second quarter stood at Rs.23,836 crore, which is a growth of 6.6 percent.

Consolidated mobile data revenue was at Rs.3,806 crore, which grew by 49.8 percent year-on-year, uplifted by data traffic growth of 76.3 percent.

Mobile data contributed to 21.5 percent of India revenue compared to 14.5 percent in the corresponding quarter last year.

"Airtel's revenue growth in India has accelerated to 13.3 percent in the second quarter on an underlying basis... the highest in the last 12 quarters. Mobile data revenue has grown by 60 percent," said Gopal Vittal, managing director and CEO of India and South Asia.

"With the commercial launch of high speed 4G services across 334 towns and roll-out of 3G services in our gap circles, we are now best positioned in the industry to leverage the fast growing data market," he added.

The company's stock was trading at Rs.352.50 per share, down 1.74 percent at 12.23 p.m. at the Bombay Stock Exchange.