Bharti Airtel posts 72 percent third-quarter profit drop as price pressure weighs

(Reuters) - Bharti Airtel Ltd posted a nearly 72 percent fall in quarterly profit on Thursday, its 11th straight profit decline on a year-on-year basis, as the telecoms bellwether suffered from continuing pricing pressure.

The deflated results come in at a time when the country's telecoms industry is still reeling from the impact of a price war which began after the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, owned by India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

The shake up resulted in industry consolidation such as London-based Vodafone Plc merging its Indian operations with Idea Cellular in a deal worth $23 billion. https://reut.rs/2Uzs8Lf

Net profit for the three months through Dec. 31 was 862 million rupees ($12.13 million) compared with a profit of 3.06 billion rupees in the year-earlier quarter.

The company reported a one-off gain of 14.14 billion rupees during the quarter, which included gains due to deconsolidation of its payments bank unit.

That compared with analyst estimates of a loss of 6.86 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

Revenue rose about 1 percent to 205.19 billion rupees.

(Graphic: India's biggest telcos by market share https://tmsnrt.rs/2SZeOzb)

Earlier this month, Jio reported a 65 percent rise in quarterly profit.

Airtel shares closed 0.9 percent higher while the broader Mumbai market ended up 1.68 percent.

($1 = 71.0800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Arnab Paul in BENGALURU; Editing by Christopher Cushing and David Evans)