The miss on the bottomline was despite the company reporting an exceptional gain of Rs 440 crore for the quarter and a near-doubling of other income to Rs 83.9 crore.
The telecom operator’s consolidated revenue from operations fell 3 per cent on-quarter to Rs 25,747.3 crore, which was also below Street’s estimates.
The revenue performance was dragged down by the company’s India mobile operations where sales declined 4.7 per cent on-quarter to Rs 14,079.8 crore in the reported quarter.
The telecom operator’s customer base in India in the quarter grew 4.2 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis to 350.3 million.
The company’s average revenue per user (ARPU) in India plummeted nearly 13 per cent in the quarter to Rs 145 per user from a three-year high of Rs 166 in the previous quarter. The decline in ARPU was largely on account of the removal of interconnect usage charges from January 1.
The telecom operator’s consolidated operating profit in the quarter stood at Rs 12,583 crore, marginally higher than the Rs 12,178 crore reported in the previous quarter. Bharti Airtel’s consolidated operating margin, however, improved sharply to 48.9 per cent from 45.9 per cent a quarter ago.
Operating profit of the India business also saw an improvement to Rs 8,970 crore from Rs 8,589 crore in the previous quarter. Despite the sharp drop in ARPU of the company, its India business’ operating margin expanded 370 basis points on-quarter to 48.9 per cent.
Shares of the telecom company ended 2.3 per cent lower at Rs 547.8 on the National Stock Exchange.
