Bharti Infratel Q2 PAT down 6 pc to Rs 600 cr

Telecom tower firm Bharti Infratel Wednesday reported a 6 per cent decline in profit after tax to Rs 600 crore for the quarter ended September on account of reduction in tenancy.

The company had registered a profit after tax of Rs 638 crore in the same period a year ago.

"The quarter witnessed much anticipated major exits of nearly 55,000 co-locations at Infratel and Indus due to consolidation and merger of operators, particularly merger of Vodafone & Idea. With these, the uncertainties in this respect are broadly addressed," Bharti Infratel Chairman Akhil Gupta said in a statement.

Consolidated revenue increased to Rs 3,668 crore from Rs 3,648 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2017-18.

Gupta said the telecom industry is now embarking on the next phase of rollouts and the company remains confident of India's long-term growth potential for the sector, driven by rising data demand, introduction of new technologies, availability of cheaper handsets and rich content availability.

On account of consolidation in the sector, Bharti Infratel saw reduction of 45,576 co-located sites, resulting in reduction of total number of co-located sites to 1,74,512 (including 42 per cent share of Bharti Infratel in Indus Towers).

The merger of Vodafone with Idea Cellular led to 27,769 exits from co-located towers during the quarter.