Bharti Airtel first-quarter profit up 40 percent

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel Ltd , India's top mobile carrier by subscribers, posted a better-than-expected 40 percent rise in quarterly net profit, helped by strong consumer demand for voice and data services.

Bharti Airtel's net profit rose to 15.54 billion rupees ($244 million) for its first quarter ended June 30, from 11.09 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said on Tuesday.

Analysts on average expected the company, which operates in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, to post earnings of 13.55 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Bharti Airtel, headed by billionaire Sunil Mittal, said total revenue rose 3.1 percent to 236.71 billion rupees.

 

($1 = 63.7079 rupees)

(Reporting by Aman Shah in Mumbai; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)