Bharti Infratel Limited on Wednesday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹608 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, as compared with ₹606 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
Consolidated revenue for the quarter stood at ₹3,600 crore, a decline of 2 per cent year-on-year (YoY). As of March 31, the company had 92,277 towers (91,451 towers in the year-ago period).
Between Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, (which are being merged), around 20 per cent of opening co-locations were lost during the year, mainly due to the merger of Vodafone and Idea, Akhil Gupta, Chairman, Bharti Infratel, said in a statement. “However... the overall financial performance for the year and the quarter has only been marginally lower than last year,” he said.
He said with rapidly growing data demand, large network rollouts will be required, indicating strong potential for the company.
“We are fully prepared to exploit this potential and meet all requirements of our customers for speedy rollouts. The merger process of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers is on track and we hope that it would be completed in the next few months,” Gupta added.
The consolidated EBITDA was at ₹1,534 crore, representing an operating margin of around 43 per cent, the company said.
Meanwhile, the board of directors declared a second interim dividend of ₹7.50 per equity share of ₹10 each for the financial year 2018-19.