Airtel has announced consolidated results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2017 in which it posted consolidated revenue of Rs. 21,958 crore, YoY drop of 11.1%, less than the expected drop of 14.0%. India revenues were at Rs. 17,244 crore that has declined by 10.0% YoY primarily led by mobile drop of 14.1% YoY. Net Income was at Rs 367 crore compared to Rs 1,462 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, down 74.9%.”Mobile market remains turbulent in the current quarter as well, due to disruptive pricing by a new operator,” said Airtel.
Mobile data traffic has grown three fold to 472 Bn MBs in the quarter compared to 158 Bn MBs in the same quarter last year. Mobile broadband customers increased by 33.7% to 48.9 Mn from 36.6 Mn in the corresponding quarter last year. Airtel India had 280,647 consumers as of June 2017, up 9.7% YoY and 2.6% QoQ.
Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said:
The pricing disruption in the Indian telecom market caused by the entry of a new operator continued with industry revenues declining over 15% Y-o-Y, creating further stress on sector profitability, cash flows and leverage. Consequently, our revenues declined 10% and EBITDA margin eroded by 5.3% Y-o-Y. We remain committed to providing the best value & experience to our customers and continue to invest towards it. As a result, our network witnessed data and voice traffic growth of 200% & 34% Y-o-Y respectively. We also added
5.2 Mn data customers in the last quarter – our highest ever.