Bharti Airtel revenue increase

Bharti Airtel Limited which would commence operations in Sri Lanka from next year yesterday, announced its audited US GAAP results for its second quarter and half year ended September 30, 2007. It has once again maintained its strong growth momentum.

The consolidated total revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 of Rs. 6,337 crore grew by 45% and EBITDA of Rs. 2,710 crore grew by 59% on a year on year basis.

The cash profit from operations of Rs. 2,597 crore grew by 58% over last year. The net profit for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 was Rs. 1,614 crore, a growth of 73% over last year.

The revenues and net profit for the first half year ended September 30, 2007 was Rs. 12,242 crore and Rs. 3,126 crore, a growth of 49% and 85% over the same period last year respectively.

Bharti had 5.1 crore customers, as on September 30, 2007, an increase in the total customer base of 78%, over the corresponding period last year and maintained its leadership position through an improved market share of all India wireless subscribers at 23.4% as on September 30, 2007, up from 21.4% corresponding to the same period of last year.

Commenting on the results and performance, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel Limited, Sunil Bharti Mittal, said, "The quarter has seen telecom growth accelerate further, clearly demonstrating that the Indian telecom market still has a long way to go to achieve its full potential.

Bharti Airtel also crossed the 50 million customer mark to enter the league of the world's top telecom companies. Going forward, we see strong demand for telecom services across all segments and we are well placed to take advantage of these growth opportunities."

Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is India's leading integrated telecom services provider with an aggregate of 50.95 million customers as of end of September 2007.