The Hindu Business Line : Bharti posts Rs 619-cr net; revenues cross Rs 5,000 cr

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Bharti posts Rs 619-cr net; revenues cross Rs 5,000 cr

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Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Group MD, Bharti Tele-Ventures, with Mr Rajan Mittal, Joint MD, at a press conference in the Capital on Friday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , April 23

BHARTI Tele-Ventures on Friday announced its first year of net profit riding a 64 per cent growth in revenues in 2003-04.

The GSM provider has logged a net profit of Rs 619 crore in 2003-04 against a loss of Rs 134 crore during the previous year.

Revenues climbed from Rs 3,050 crore to Rs 5,002 crore during the same period.

Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and group Managing Director, said: "The recently concluded fiscal was perhaps the most challenging year for our company but we still returned with a robust growth and profits."

"BSNL resorted to predatory pricing by launching free incoming, regulatory issues went negative for GSM operators and Reliance Infocomm launched its CDMA service. In the same year, Bharti joined the league of Infosys and Wipro to clock Rs 5,000 crore plus in revenues," Mr Mittal said.

The company held its annual general meeting on Friday morning to finalise its fourth-quarter and annual results.

Net profit more than quadrupled at Rs 304 crore for the quarter ended March 2004, from Rs 70 crore earlier. Revenues during the period rose 54 per cent from Rs 1,007 crore to Rs 1,553 crore.

"We have surprised analysts by compiling our audited annual results in such a short period of time. The results disclose every little detail about the company's performance and are also compatible with US GAAP," Mr Mittal said, adding that the company was ready to go in for international listing as soon as it was allowed to do so by the Government.

The company, which saw net profit in all the four quarters of 2003-04, said that it has almost wiped out accumulated losses. "Our accumulated losses have come down to Rs 80 crore," a senior company official said.

Bharti plans to invest $700-750 million to expand and strengthen its infrastructure this year.

The amount, which would come from internal accruals, will be used for expanding its mobile telephony infrastructure and fixed line and long-distance business, the official added.

Bharti, which recently got licences for six more circles, is stepping up efforts to put up infrastructure in the new circles.

The company hopes to corner 21 per cent market share by the time the mobile subscriber base in the country reaches 100 million in the next couple of years as projected by the TRAI. In the GSM space, Bharti expects its share to be 25 per cent.

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