Jio woes: Airtel Q4 net profit slumps 72%

Country’s largest telecom firm Bharti Airtel today reported its lowest quarterly profit in four years as net earnings fell 72% in January-March, hit by “sustained predatory pricing” by rival Reliance Jio.

The net profit in the quarter ended March 2017 stood at Rs 373.4 crore (or Rs 0.93 a share), nearly a fourth of the Rs 1,319.2 crore (or Rs 3.30 a share) notched in the year-ago period. The company announced the results after market hours.

Billionaire Sunil Mittal-headed company blamed rival Jio for the lowest profit since the January-March quarter of 2013 and said the “sustained predatory pricing” by the new entrant was responsible for the drop in annual revenue of the entire telecom industry. The “deteriorating” health of the industry was compounded by the tsunami of incoming traffic from the new operator, said Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal.

He added that “significant investments had to be made just to carry the incoming traffic on our network”. Bharti, which has been locked in an intense war of words with Jio over free offers, is the first telecom company to report its fourth quarter earnings, setting the tone for the industry. The third largest operator Idea Cellular …read more