New Delhi: Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile operator, reported a 21 per cent rise in quarterly profit as it added more users in the world's fastest-growing wireless market and kept tariffs steady unlike its rivals.
The company, in which Southeast Asia's top phone firm SingTel owns about 31 per cent, said its board had approved its maiden dividend and a two-for-one stock split.
Mobile operators have added subscribers at a rapid pace in India, with cheaper call rates and an expansion in networks boosting growth.
Operators signed up a total 130 million subscribers in the year to end-March, including a record 44.5 million last quarter.
But cut-throat competition is biting, with firms cutting tariffs and giving away free minutes.
"Our focus on rural penetration and customer affordability has been instrumental in delivering this strong growth," Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal said in a statement.
"The India growth story continues and we expect revival of the economy in the second half of this fiscal year."
Bharti shares rose as much as 3.5 per cent in early deals after the results, and by 10:30 am (0500 GMT) had trimmed the gains to 0.7 per cent.
Bharti said January-March net profit rose to 22.39 billion rupees ($446 million) under US accounting standards from 18.52 billion rupees a year ago.
It suffered a forex loss of 2.36 billion Rupees as its net payout on foreign currency denominated loans increased due to a weaker Rupee, which fell 4 per cent against the dollar in January-March, the company's fiscal fourth quarter.
Revenue rose 26 per cent to 98.25 billion rupees from 78.19 billion rupees.
A Reuters poll of 12 brokerages had forecast net profit of 22.1 billion rupees on revenue of 101.46 billion Rupees.
Bharti added a record 8.3 million mobile users last quarter to boost its total to nearly 94 million or about 24 per cent of the market.
EBITDA margin, a key gauge of profitability, was at 40.7 per cent in the March quarter.
Average revenue per user fell 15 per cent to 305 rupees last quarter as it won more new users in rural areas, where users talk less on phones and some use mobiles just to answer calls.
Minutes of usage fell 4 per cent to 485 minutes.
Bharti shares fell 13 percent in the quarter, underperforming a 0.6 per cent rise in the broader market.
Second-ranked Reliance Communications is set to announce a fall in net profit when it reports its earnings on Thursday.
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