Bharti Airtel Q3 net up at Rs 12.15 bn

India's largest private cellular operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday posted a net profit of Rs 12.15 billion for the quarter ending on December 31 — a whopping 123 per cent increase from last year.

The total revenues of the company were at Rs 49.13 bn for the third quarter this fiscal, up 62 per cent over the corresponding period last year the company said.

The average revenues per user for mobile services stood at Rs 427 for the quarter under review.

Airtel added 50.19 lakh customers in this quarter, and as on December 31, 2006, the total number of customers of the company stood at 3.37 crore, an increase of 92 per cent over the same quarter last year.

The company further added that there has been an improved market share as its subscriber base soared by 21.8 per cent.

With a view to enhancing its operational efficiencies, Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it will transfer the towers for mobile communications and related passive infrastructure into a wholly-owned subsidiary — Bharti Infratel Ltd.

The board of directors of the company at a meeting recently took a decision to this effect, Bharti Airtel informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The company plans to acquire a submarine network cable system from Network i2i through the purchase of all the assets or equity for an overall consideration of 110 million dollar, subject to obtaining the requisite approvals.

Network i2i is jointly owned by Singtel and a Bharti group company.

The board of directors also approved the commencement of Direct To Home (DTH) services to address the fast-growing home entertainment segment through its wholly owned subsidiary — Bharti Telemedia Ltd.