CHENNAI: Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel on Monday reported a sequential drop in both consolidated net profit and revenue during the fourth quarter of FY21 (ended March 31 (Q4FY21) after the removal of the Inter-connect Usage Charge (IUC) system led to a fall in its average revenue per user (ARPU) in its wireless business.
The company declared a consolidated net profit of Rs 759 crore for the quarter compared to a loss of Rs 5,237 crore in the same period a year ago.The company also reported an annual turnover of more than Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time in FY21.
Bharti Airtel’s consolidated revenue increased on a year-on-year basis by 11.9 per cent to Rs 25,747 crore during the quarter, but fell three per cent compared to the previous quarter. It’s consolidated net profit also fell sequentially by 11.1 per cent driven by the dive in ARPU. The key metric went from Rs 1 nearly 13 per cent in the quarter to Rs 145 per user from a three-year high of Rs 166 during the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, the India revenue of Bharti Airtel increased by 10 per cent during the quarter to Rs 18,337.8 crore from Rs 16,734.3 crore a year ago. Mobile services business of Bharti Airtel grew by 9 per cent to Rs 14,079.7 crore during the period under review.The company managed to offset the fall in ARPU through cost cutting measures: its capital expenditure in the mobile network, for instance, halved to Rs 3,739.3 crore during the quarter.
However, the work-from-home trend is driving data demand upwards, which has seen a higher investment in fixed line services such as broadband connections.Bharti Airtel also increased investment in home services by over three-folds year-on-year to Rs 332.5 crore during the quarter.