Bharti Airtel net down 22% on interest costs but Africa ops cash positive

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel, the world’s fifth-biggest mobile phone carrier by subscribers, reported a 22 percent fall in quarterly profit, on Wednesday. Its eighth straight quarter of declining profits hit by higher interest costs.

Bharti, controlled by billionaire Sunil Mittal and also nearly a third owned by Southeast Asia’s biggest phone firm SingTel, said consolidated net profit fell to Rs 1,011 crore for its fiscal third quarter ended December from Rs 1,303 crore a year earlier.The results were based on international accounting standards.

A Reuters poll of brokerages had expected a 3.2 percent rise in net profit to Rs 1,345 crore for India’s top mobile phone operator, which in 2010 bought mobile operations from Kuwait’s Zain in 15 African countries in a $9 billion debt-funded deal.

While the telecom company’s Indian business has been a disappointment, its African operations have been cash positive. In a conference call today, the company said it added over 2.5 million new customers in Africa in the third quarter of the current financial year and plans to introduce 3G serivec in six more African nations soon.

While the company’s margins are up 7.6 percent in Africa on a year-on-year basis, Airtel expects its Africa capex at $1.4 to 1.5 billion.

Manoj Kohli, chief executive officer for international operations said that the company was past peak capital expenditure in its operations in Africa and that it is seeing benefits of last year’s increase in call prices in India

Regarding bidding for 2G spectrum, the telco said it cannot comment on speculation.

Bharti currently operates in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. India is the company’s biggest market where it had more than 175 million mobile customers as of December.

Bharti Airtel , the world’s fifth-biggest mobile phone carrier by subscribers, had net debt of Rs 67,763 crore at end-December, the company said.

With inputs from Reuters