Bharti Airtel's net income drops by 75% as Jio disrupts profits

The consolidated total revenues of Bharti Airtel in Q1FY18 stood at Rs 21,958 crore, down 11.1% Y-o-Y on an underlying basis.

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced its financial result for the quarter ended on June 30. The company reported a consolidated net income of Rs 367 crore, a drop of 74.8% as against Rs 1462 crore during the same quarter last year. In the fourth quarter of last fiscal, the company had posted net income of Rs 373 crore.

Overall Bharti Airtel's customer stood at 37.9 crore across 17 countries, up 10.2% on year-on-year basis excluding divested units.

The Consolidated EBITDA stood at Rs 7823 crore, down 18.4% on y-o-y basis and EBITDA margin was at 35.6%, drop of 1.9% on y-o-y in Q1FY18.

The consolidated total revenues in Q1FY18 stood at Rs 21,958 crore, down 11.1% Y-o-Y on an underlying basis. Consolidated Y-o-Y revenue growth muted by 2.6% on account of Nigeria currency devaluation. Consolidated mobile data traffic at 527 Mn MBs in the quarter has registered a strong Y-o-Y growth of 178.0% on an underlying basis. Consolidated mobile data revenues for the quarter at Rs 3,765 crore, Y-o-Y drop of 16.8% on an underlying basis.

Mr. Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said, "The pricing disruption in the Indian telecom market caused by the entry of a new operator continued with industry revenues declining over 15% Y-o-Y, creating further stress on sector profitability, cash flows and leverage. Consequently, our revenues declined 10% and EBITDA margin eroded by 5.3% Y-o-Y. We remain committed to providing the best value & experience to our customers and continue to invest towards it. As a result, our network witnessed data and voice traffic growth of 200% & 34% Y-o-Y respectively."

In constant currency (1st Mar’17) terms, Africa underlying revenues grew by 1.5% Y-o-Y. Data revenues at $138 million grew by 11.3% Y-o-Y, led by increase in Data customer base by 19.4% and traffic by 75.0%. Data revenues now contribute to 18.7% of overall Africa revenues vis-à-vis 16.9% in the corresponding quarter last year, the company said in a regulatory filing.