Bharti Airtel net profit drops to 41%

BANGALORE: On Wednesday India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd. missed market expectations to post a nearly 41% drop in its third-quarter consolidated net profit, weighed by mounting interest costs and intense competition in its home market.

For the October-December quarter, Bharti India’s largest mobile phone company by users, posted a net profit of 13.03 billion rupees ($287 million) A year earlier, it reported a net profit of 21.95 billion rupees.

Revenue rose nearly 53% to 157.56 billion rupees from 103.05 billion rupees, helped by subscriber additions and contributions from its Africa unit.

A poll of 16 analysts expected a net profit of 15.96 billion rupees on revenue of 158.23 billion rupees.