Bharti Airtel shares bleed nearly 2% on Sensex post disappointing Q3 results

Shares of telecom major Bharti Airtel opened 1.47% lower or 7.25 points down to Rs 487.25 per share on BSE Sensex. 

In the pre-open session, Airtel’s shares were down 8.99% or 44.45 points to Rs 450.05 apiece.

Airtel’s profit fell for the seventh quarter in a row post the launch of Reliance Jio and its attractive discounted services.

Net profit declined 39% in the quarter that ended December 31, 2017, and fell to Rs 306 crore in Q3 FY18. Its revenue fell 6.7% to Rs 20,320 crore.

Operating income of Airtel fell 5.7% sequentially, to its lowest level in the last fifteen quarters at Rs 7,469 crore.

Airtel’s fall in profit is also a result of lowering of the interconnection usage charges (IUC) that were levied by TRAI at 6 paise per minute.

Airtel said that just the cut in IUC led to a Rs 1,061.5 drop in revenue and a Rs 338.7 crore fall in operating profit. It also reduced its ARPU by Rs 16.

“Regulatory fiat in the form of a cut in domestic IUC rates has exacerbated the industry ARPU decline,” Gopal Vittal, managing director and chief executive officer at Bharti Airtel said.

Though the operator’s subscriber base grew by 81 lakh during the quarter, its average revenue per user was still hit on account of attractive offers announced by the company in the midst of growing competition.

Consolidated net debt of Airtel went up 0.3% sequentially to Rs 91,714 crore.

"Q3’18 has also seen the highest ever broadband site deployment of 32K in any quarter, complementing the robust data and voice traffic growth of 544% and 50% respectively on a Y-o-Y basis. We are committed to remaining the operator of choice for all customers in this rapidly consolidating industry,” Vittal added.