This was Airtel’s fourth successive quarter in the black after six straight losses. The September quarter profit was about four times of Rs 284 crore posted in the April-June period. The Sunil Mittal-led telco had made a loss of Rs 763.2 crore in the year-ago period.
Airtel shares were subsequently trading up 1% higher at Rs 719.8 on the BSE.
BofA Securities said: “Bharti’s 2Q cellular revenue growth was better than Jio’s as it was up 6.2% vs Jio’s 4.1% qoq,” and that its “net adds too were stronger” at 2.2 million vs Jio, which lost over 11 million customers in fiscal second quarter.
Airtel’s strong India mobile revenue growth was driven by tariff hikes in July in the base prepaid voice and postpaid corporate user segments, which propelled average revenue per user (ARPU) growth at India’s second-largest telco, said analysts.
The Sunil Mittal-led carrier said net income was boosted by a net gain of Rs 722.1 crore on account of transfer of spectrum right to another telecom operator during the September quarter. Post-tax, the overall net exceptional gain stood at Rs 540.4 crore, the company had said in its earnings statement Tuesday. Bharti Airtel concluded a spectrum trading deal to sell 800 MHz airwaves to Jio in three circles in August.
Airtel’s ARPU, a key performance metric for telcos, grew to Rs 153 from Rs 146 in the June quarter. Brokerage UBS said the ARPU growth was “aided by the plan tweaks and improved customer mix,” and described the quarterly performance as “healthy”.
Consolidated revenue, in turn, grew 13% from the year earlier and 5.5% sequentially to Rs 28,326 crore.
