Bharti Airtel Q3 net at Rs 2,209.8 cr

Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel on Friday reported a low net profit growth of 2.3 per cent at Rs 2,209.80 crore (Rs 22.09 billion) for the quarter ending December 31, 2009, weighed down heavily by low tariff and severe competition.

Total revenue, as per the US accounting rules, rose over one per cent to Rs 9,772.20 crore (Rs 97.72 billion) during the December quarter, from Rs 9,633.4 crore (Rs 96.33 billion) in the corresponding period last year, Bharti Airtel said.

"In a hyper competitive situation like (the one) we are witnessing now in the industry, we have retained our revenue market share at 32 per cent and have a very strong EBITDA margin at 40 per cent, which shows our strong performance," Bharti Airtel Group CEO Manoj Kohli told reporters.

He said that the trend of adding 15-16 million subscriber a month is not adding more revenue to the industry as the revenue earnings customers are less.

"Real customers addition will be in single digit. We do not see customers holding multiple SIM cards adding to revenue," he said.

In a weak broader market shares of Bharti gained 2.37 per cent over last close to trade at Rs 329.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Kohli added that Airtel is expecting more competition from the new player, who are likely to start services in the next few months.