Bharti Q1 net down 37% to Rs 762 cr

It had posted a net profit of Rs 1,215.2 crore in the same period last fiscal, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

The total revenues were, however, up by 14 per cent to Rs 19,350 crore in the quarter against Rs 16,975 crore in Q1 FY'12, marked by growth of 31.5 per cent in Africa and 44.2 per cent increase in mobile data revenues from India.

"Telecom revenues in India have been depressed due to hyper-competition and recent regulatory and tax developments. Despite these adverse developments, Airtel has kept its focus on network expansion, market investments, superior customer experience and new product innovations," Bharti Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal said.

The company said the revenues in India during the quarter were impacted by two significant changes -- Trai guidelines around processing fees which restricts the sales of "combo packs" and hike in service tax from 10.3 per cent to 12.36 per cent, effective April 1, 2012.

The hike caused all telecom services to become dearer by nearly 2 per cent, with the entire additional levy being passed to the exchequer.

Africa revenues grew by 31.5 per cent, driven by strong operational performance in the last year and favourable currency movements.

"However, economic and currency headwinds are presently evident in key markets as a result of the eurozone crisis, lower aid and grants, rising inflation and political issues in some countries.

"With this in mind, the company intensified market operations, advertising, network rollouts, as well as new growth initiatives such as 3G, Airtel money and Rwanda," the company said.

The company's total subscriber base across mobile, telemedia and digital TV services in India, South Asia and Africa stood at 260.71 million at the end of June 2012.

The company scrip were trading 1.43 per cent lower at Rs 289.60 on the BSE in early trade today.