Indian telecoms group Bharti Airtel has reported consolidated revenue of INR240.66 billion (USD3.5 billion) for its fiscal third quarter ended 31 December 2015, an increase of 3.7% from INR232.17 billion in the year-ago period, driven by a 44.0% jump in mobile data revenues to INR41.35 million. Total group EBITDA for the quarter climbed by 8.3% year-on-year to INR84.75 billion, while net profit for the three-month period amounted to INR11.17 billion, down by 22.2% from INR14.37 billion in the quarter ended 31 December 2014, thanks to higher interest and spectrum costs. In India, revenue grew by 8.8% from INR162.56 billion in the three months to end-December 2014 to INR176.94 billion in the same period a year later, and EBITDA rose 13% over the same timeframe to reach INR71.88 billion. Domestic mobile data revenues registered a growth of 50.6% year-on-year, led by a 29.9% increase in data customers. Bharti Airtel’s African unit, meanwhile, saw revenue growth of 3.1% y-o-y to INR1.03 billion, while EBITDA for the division increased by around 2%, to total INR219 million in the three-month period under review.
Bharti Airtel ended December 2015 with a total subscriber base of 350.86 million, an increase of 12.1% from 312.90 million twelve months earlier. Group mobile customers grew by 12.2% y-o-y to 336.15 million, including 243.29 million in India (up by 12.0%), 10.79 million in South Asia (26.8%) and 82.07 million in Africa (10.0% y-o-y).