Bharti Airtel reported higher revenues and improving margins for the fiscal third quarter to December, while net profit fell due to higher taxes. Revenues were up 17.1 percent from a year earlier to INR 184.77 billion (USD 3.65 billion). In India and South Asia, revenues rose 12.1 percent, while the African operations improved sales 16.1 percent. The EBITDA margin rose to 32.2 percent from 31.7 a year ago, driven by an improvement of over 7 percentage points in Africa. While pretax profit was up 2 percent, net profit fell to INR 10.1 billion from INR 13.0 billion. Operating free cash flow for the first nine months of the fiscal year reached INR 62.8 billion, supported by a move to positive cash flow in Africa. The mobile customer base in India and South Asia rose 2 percent from September to 182 million, and ARPU in the region returned to growth, rising to INR 187 from INR 183 in the previous quarter. African subscribers were up 5 percent to 51 million, while ARPU there dipped to USD 7.1 from USD 7.3. The fixed-line and broadband subscriber base in India was stable at 3.32 million, and TV subscribers rose by 7 percent in the quarter to 7.07 million.
