Bharti Airtel Net Loss widens to Rs.23,045 Crore in Sept Quarter, India subscriber base drops by 13%

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel Limited on Thursday reported consolidated net loss of Rs.23,045 Crore in the second quarter (July-Sept) from profit of Rs.119 Crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The consolidated revenues for Q2’20 at Rs 21,131 crore grew 6.9% Y-o-Y (reported increase of 4.9%) on an underlying basis. Consolidated mobile data traffic at 4,661 PBs in the quarter has registered a healthy Y-o-Y growth of 81%.

The company has witnessed 13.3% drop in its India subscriber base to 304 million by September 2019 from  351 million in September 2018.

Consolidated EBITDA at Rs 8,936 crore increased 40.9% Y-o-Y. Consolidated EBITDA margin increased by 10.8% to 42.3% in the quarter as compared to 31.5% in the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated EBIT increased by 85.2% Y-o-Y to Rs 1,993 crore. The Consolidated Net Loss before exceptional items for the quarter stands at Rs 1,123 crore.

India revenues for Q2’20 at Rs 15,361 crore have increased by 5.7% Y-o-Y (reported increase of 3.0%) on an underlying basis. Mobile revenues have witnessed a Y-o-Y growth of 7.1%. Mobile data traffic has nearly doubled to 4,497 PBs in the quarter as compared to 2,478 PBs in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile 4G data customers increased by 56.9% to 103.1 Mn from 65.7 Mn in the corresponding quarter last year. Digital TV revenue witnessed a growth of 17.1% Y-o-Y on an underlying basis (decline of 22.9% on reported basis due to reporting changes in DTH pursuant to the new tariff order.

 “Despite being a seasonally weak quarter, we witnessed positive revenue growth in Q2 on the back of various initiatives aimed at providing superior differential services through our Thanks platform. We continue to witness strong data traffic growth of ~ 81% Y-o-Y and added ~8 Mn 4G customers on our network during the quarter. We remain committed to strengthening our network and providing a superior experience to our customers” said   Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia.