Bharti Airtel again witnessed a decline in keenly followed parameters, after some signs of revival in the previous couple of quarters.
The company had to contend with fall in average revenues per user (ARPU) and realisations per minute in its mobile business. Also, its tower operations faced reduced sharing revenues.
Bharti’s telemedia (landline and broadband) and digital TV divisions benefited, though, from healthy subscriber additions which improved revenues.
In the June quarter, the company’s revenues rose 14 per cent over the same period a year ago to Rs 19,350 crore, while its net profits were down 37 per cent to Rs 762 crore. A steep 20 per cent rise in deprecation and amortisation and also a 17 per cent increase in finance costs led to the steep fall in profits. Bharti’s interest coverage ratio has been steadily reducing and is now at 6.32 from 9.62 a year ago.
ARPU slips again
After two quarters of increase, Bharti’s mobile business ARPU again slipped by 3.1 per cent over the same period last year to Rs 185. The realisations per minute too fell marginally. This suggests that the tariff wars are yet to fully abate. The 3G services, which were expected to prop up ARPUs, do not seem to have made significant inroads.
The ARPUs of its African operations too fell by a stiff 10.2 per cent. Bharti’s tower business’ sharing revenue per operator per month declined 3.5 per cent to Rs 32,360. The tenancy per tower though improved marginally to 1.91.
The company’s telemedia business, however, improved with 2,000 customers being added, after a gap of two quarters. ARPUs also increased to Rs 962.
The DTH division performed ahead of expectations delivering a 25 per cent growth in revenues, stable ARPUs and healthy subscriber additions.