Bharti Airtel reports healthy financials for 2013-14

On the closure of its fourth quarter, Bharti Airtel, which has the middle name of its promoter Sunil Mittal, reported 89 per cent growth in its net income, on the back of strong data growth, better voice realisation and declining foreign exchange losses.

In the same quarter, the company reported a revenue growth of 13.5 per cent to Rs 22,219 crore. Mobile data revenues grew disproportionately in the period by 93.4 per cent to Rs 1,900 crore.

It also reported a healthy full year financial with revenue at Rs 85,746 crore (11.5 per cent growth) and net income of Rs 2,773 crore (21.8 per cent).

With 205 million mobile subscribers, Airtel is India's largest mobile operator. It also went to Africa in 2010 after acquiring Zain Telecom. It total subscriber base including international operations stands at 283.6 million.

With the regulatory skirmishes behind them all, telecom operators are looking at investment in network and increase in data penetration.

For Airtel's India operations, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation improved by three percentage points to 36.8 per cent.

Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and CEO, India & South Asia of Airtel said in a statement: "The year has ended on a satisfying note, both in operational and financial terms... Network and spectrum investments, a refreshed IT strategy, innovative service platforms and an energised organisation will enable sustained growth in India and South Asia."

Overall average revenue per user (ARPU) barely grew by 2 per cent to Rs 196, mainly because the voice ARPU remained flat. ARPU from data users grew by 43 per cent to Rs 79. Data users grew by 34 per cent to 58 million users, but its 3G user base grew much faster at 74 per cent to 11 million users.

Africa still continues to be a burden on Airtel, but is showing early signs of a turnaround.

Africa's revenue grew at 15 per cent to Rs 28,989 crore, but EBITDA grew marginally, from 24.6 per cent to 25 per cent.

Christian de Faria, Managing Director and CEO, Airtel's African business said: "In the last year, we successfully integrated the acquired business in Uganda, and are confident that we will repeat the success in Congo Basin. Our teams remain focused on accelerating growth through improving the quality of network, growing the data business and expanding the Airtel money base."