Bharti Airtel rings in new fiscal year by posting strong results in Q4

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As per United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), the telecom giant, in which Southeast Asia's top phone company SingTel has more than 30 percent stake, said its net profit after tax for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, rose to Rs.1853 crore ($463.25 million) from Rs.1353 crore ($338.25 million) for the same period a year earlier, a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 36.95 percent, while for the full fiscal year, its net profit stood at Rs.6701 crore ($1.67 billion) as against Rs.4257 crore ($1.06 billion) a year earlier, a YoY growth of 57.41 percent.

Total revenues for the quarter was Rs.7819 crore ($1.95 billion) as against Rs.5393 crore ($1.35 billion) for the same period a year earlier, a YoY growth of 45 percent while for the whole year, the total revenues was Rs.27,025 crore ($6.75 billion) as against Rs.18,520 crore ($4.63 billion), a YoY growth of 45.9 percent.

"Bharti had 6.4 crore (64 million) subscribers, as on March 31, 2008, an increase in the total subscriber base of 65 percent, over the corresponding period last year and maintained its leadership position through an improved market share of all India wireless subscribers at 23.8 percent as on March 31, 2008, up from 22.4 percent corresponding to the same period of last year," the company said in a press release.

"This has been another year of record growth for the telecom industry and Bharti Airtel. The Indian telecom story is now entering the second wave of growth, which will come from rural India. As an industry leader we are committed to be at the forefront of this growth and take our services deeper into rural areas and provide affordable world-class services to customers," said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Airtel Ltd.

"The coming year will be an exciting one for the company as we launch our services in new segments such as DTH and go live with our operations in Sri Lanka. Going forward, we see another year of strong demand in all business segments and we will continue to build on our organizational strengths," Mittal said, forecasting strong growth in the future.

The company plans to spend $3.4 billion on capital expenditure in the fiscal year 2008-09 as it expands network coverage, Sarvjit Dhillon, CFO, Bharti Airtel, said.

Thanks to call rates of as low as one US cent a minute, availability of cheaper handsets and expansion of networks to smaller towns and rural areas, the Indian mobile market has leapfrogged the US to become the second largest and the world's fastest growing mobile market in the world. With Indian operators adding 8-9 million subscribers a month, at the end of March, total number of mobile users stood at 261 million, data from the telecom regulator showed.

According to market analysts, mobile users in India have jumped 25 times between 2002 and 2007, but the potential for growth remains huge as just 22 percent of the billion-plus population has a mobile phone. Though India's mobile revolution is mainly confined to the cities, the real prize for phone companies is the vast rural market, where nearly 70 percent of India's 1.1 billion population live.

1 crore = 10 million

US$ amounts represent convenience translations at US$1= Rs.40