Bharti Infratel Q1 net profit slips 12% to Rs 664 cr

Mobile tower company Bharti Infratel today reported 12 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 664 crore for the June quarter of the current fiscal.
It had posted net profit of Rs 756 crore in the same period of FY2016-17, it said in a statement.
The consolidated revenue of mobile tower arm of Bharti Airtel increased by 10 per cent to Rs 3,524 crore during the April-June 2017 quarter, as against Rs 3,211 crore posted in the year-ago period.
The consolidated numbers include the financials of the company and its proportionate share of 42 per cent holding in Indus Towers.

"Indian telecom is moving towards a data centric business model as the demand for data is growing exponentially, with the nation decisively embracing the digital world," Bharti Infratel Chairman Akhil Gupta said.
He added that Bharti Infratel continues to observe significant network rollouts for data coverage and it believes all operators will further accelerate their data network rollout plans to grab a share in the growing data market.

"The Government of India's Digital India programme and Smart City project pose additional opportunity to create infrastructure for sharing on a non-discriminatory basis," he said.
The company added 191 mobile towers, taking the total number to 90,837 towers at the end of June 30, 2017.

A final dividend of Rs 4 per equity share for the year ended March 2017 has been approved by the shareholders in the annual general meeting dated July 22, 2017, the statement said.
Bharti Infratel stock closed at Rs 409.50 a unit, down marginally from its previous close on BSE.