The Hindu Business Line : Bharti’s Q4 net rises 37% as subscriber base widens

New Delhi, April 25 Riding on a massive increase in its subscriber base, telecom major Bharti Airtel Ltd on Friday announced a 37 per cent increase in its fourth quarter net profit.

The company’s subscriber base grew 65 per cent to 6.4 crore on March 31, 2008, compared to 3.9 crore in the corresponding period last year. Bharti also improved its market share in the mobile segment to 23.8 per cent (22.4 per cent).

Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, said, “This has been another year of record growth for the telecom industry and Bharti Airtel. 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 will continue to build on our organisational strengths.” The company is planning to invest $3.5 billion in 2008-09 for network expansion.

During the fourth quarter of 2007-08, Bharti Airtels’ average revenue per user in the mobile segment dipped from Rs 390 in the previous year to Rs 357. Mobile services contributed 82 per cent of the company’s revenues. The minutes of usage has, however, increased from 478 per user per month to 507.

Bharti’s stock price went up 9.6 per cent to Rs 925 on Friday compared to the previous day’s closing price of Rs 844.

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