By IANS,
New Delhi : Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel, which recently acquired the African assets of Kuwait’s Zain, Wednesday reported a 32 percent fall in its net profit for the quarter ended June 30, over the like period of last year.
Announcing its consolidated results, the company said it posted a net profit of Rs.1,682 crore for the April-June quarter, compared to Rs.2,475 crore for the like period of last year.
The total revenues of the company, however, increased 17 percent to Rs.12,231 crore for the quarter ended June 30, compared to Rs.10,414 crore. The result includes 23 days of operations of its African assets.
In June, Bharti became the fifth-largest mobile operator of the world by subscribers after acquiring the African operations from Kuwaiti telecoms group Zain for $9 billion.
“The first quarter witnessed the successful completion of the acquisition of Zain’s mobile operations in 15 African countries,” group chairman Sunil Mittal said in a statement.
“Our business in India and South Asia got off to a solid start with robust revenue growth and healthy margins. This reaffirms our conviction that leaders emerge stronger in a hyper competitive market.”
Ahead of the results, the company’s scrip opened at Rs.322, against the previous close at Rs.324.30. The fluctuations thereafter saw the scrip register a high of Rs.335.60 and a low of 315.45.
Some four-and-a-half hours into trading, the scrip was ruling at Rs.325 with a marginal gain of 0.22 percent.