Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹1,255 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, up 30.5 per cent as compared to ₹962 crore in the same period last year.
The growth was reflected by a rise in average revenue per user (ARPU), a wider customer base and more mobile data revenues during the quarter, led by 11 per cent rise in mobile business, 10.2 per cent in Telemedia and 17.2 per cent in Digital TV, the company said.
The mobile data ARPU was up by ₹43 from ₹133 in fourth quarter in 2014 to ₹176 in the fourth quarter 2015. However, the company had a forex loss at ₹1,081 crore during the quarter as compared to ₹152 crore during the fourth quarter 2014.
The company spent ₹6,446 crore on capacity expansions during the quarter, up 93.7 per cent against same quarter previous year, it said.
Also, the company recorded the total number of its customer base as 32.44 crore as during the last quarter, against 29.59 crore during the fourth quarter in 2014.
In India, it has recorded 22.60 crore customers as of March 31, compared with 21.72 crore in March 2014.
“Once again, the 20,000-strong Airtel family has stood together to deliver these results. Airtel is spearheading the country’s digital agenda with substantial investments in the internet space,” Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, India & South Asia, said.
The cumulative investment of ₹68,000 crore in spectrum is a reflection of the company’s commitment to the cause of a Digital India, and the potential of the exciting opportunity, he added.
On a yearly basis, Airtel’s net profit grew by 86.9 per cent to ₹5,183 crore for 2014-15 as compared with ₹2,773 crore in the previous fiscal. Total revenue for the year also rose 7.3 per cent to ₹92,039 crore as against ₹85,746 crore in 2013-14.
Dividend The Board has proposed a final dividend of ₹2.22 per share (face value of ₹5 per share) for the financial year ended March 31, 2015.
Together with the interim dividend of ₹1.63 per share, the total dividend for the year comes to ₹3.85 per share, the company added.
Shares of Airtel closed at ₹400.80 on the BSE on Tuesday, up 2.26 per cent from the previous close.