Bharti Infratel Q1 profit down by 12%

Bharti Infratel first quarter profit ended June 30, 2017 was at Rs. 664 crore down by 12 percent over the corresponding period last year.

The consolidated revenues for the quarter, at Rs. 3,524 crore grew by 10% over the corresponding period last year. Consolidated EBITDA improved to Rs. 1,575 Crore up 12% Y-o-Y, representing an operating margin of 44.7%. Consolidated profit before tax at Rs. 1,095 Crore up 10% Y-o-Y. The operating free cash flow grew by 4% Y-o-Y to Rs. 992 crore for the quarter.

The final dividend of Rs 4 per equity share for the year ended March 2017 has been approved by the shareholders in the annual general meeting dated July 22, 2017.

Akhil Gupta, Chairman, Bharti Infratel said, “Indian telecom is moving towards a data centric business model as the demand for data is growing exponentially with the nation decisively embracing the digital world. We continue to observe significant network rollouts for data coverage and we believe all operators will further accelerate their data network rollout plans to grab a share in the growing data market.” 

“The Government of India’s Digital India program and Smart City project pose additional opportunity to create infrastructure for sharing on a non-discriminatory basis. As Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, we are well positioned to grab our fair share of the emerging data led growth market and build vital infrastructure for Smart Cities for sharing on non-discriminatory basis,” added Gupta.

Bharti Infratel had a total tower count of 90,837 as on June 30, 2017. The total colocations was in excess of 218,000 with a sharing factor at 2.40. Co-location additions for the quarter stood at 7,795, highest ever since IPO.