Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s first-quarter profit fell amid higher costs.
The telecom operator's net profit fell 33.5% sequentially to Rs 2,468.8 crore in the quarter ended June, according to its exchange filing. That compares with the Rs 2,451.4-crore consensus profit estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.
Bharti Airtel Q1 Highlights (Consolidated, QoQ)
Revenue increased 4% to Rs 32,804.6 crore, against an estimate of Rs 32,556.3 crore.
Operating profit increased 3% to Rs 16,529.40 crore, compared to the forecast of Rs 16,390.1 crore.
Ebitda margin fell to 50.39% from 50.92% as of March.
Total costs in the quarter ended June jumped 5% sequentially and 15% year-on-year.
The average revenue per user of the company rose 2.8% sequentially to Rs 183, aided by tariff hikes and 4G customer acquisitions.
The customer base increased to 49.7 crore in June, compared to 49.1 crore in March.
The average data usage per mobile data customer reached 19.5 GB per month, while voice usage per customer was at 1,104 minutes per month, according to the press release.
Total capex spends for the quarter ending June stood at Rs 6,398 crore, up 7% sequentially. It added around 8,000 towers during the quarter.
The company bought 19,867 MHz in the 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz bands in the recently concluded spectrum auction.
Bharti Airtel was the second biggest buyer with Rs 43,084 crore worth of spends, trailing Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.
Shares of Bharti Airtel closed 0.1% higher before the results were announced, compared with a 0.73% gain in the benchmark Nifty 50.
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