Airtel suffers 22 per cent fall in profits in quarter to end-December 2011

Bharti Airtel has reported that revenues in its third-fiscal quarter to end-December 2011 rose by 17.1 per cent to reach US$3.65 billion. Africa revenues recorded growth of 16.1 per cent; and up by 32.2 per cent in Rupee terms, aided by exchange rate movements.

Net profit for the quarter fell by 22.4 per cent to US$200 million year-on-year, which the company attributed to higher tax provisions. The consolidated year-to-date effective tax rate works out to 32.5 per cent.

Consolidated EBITDA margins for the quarter increased to 32.2 per cent, with significant margin improvement being reported in Africa.

In total, the company has just under 233 million mobile subscribers, up 17 per cent year-on-year. The bulk of these, 182 million, are in India & South Asia, which saw a 16 per cent growth, with just fewer than 51 million in Africa, a base which grew by 21 per cent.