In the recent December quarter, Bharti Airtel reported 55 per cent Y-o-Y decline in its profit . This was due to lower revenue and increase in finance costs. The company’s revenue declined 3 per cent Y-o-Y, impacted by both Reliance Jio’s free services and demonetisation effects.
The company’s mobile services customer base increased by 9.2 per cent Y-o-Y to 266 million customers. But the voice average revenue per user (ARPU) declined 10 per cent. Also, data services ARPU slipped 12.5 per cent, despite increase in data usage per customer due to changes in company tariffs.
The spectrum acquisition in October 2016 has increased the net debt of the company to ₹97,395 crore as of December 2016 from ₹78,451 crore a year earlier. Also, the company has incurred capital expenditure to enhance its data capabilities. Finance cost rose 37 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹1,936 crore. The company launched Airtel Payments Bank to facilitate digital transactions and retain its customer base.