Bharti Infratel net profit jumps 64% to Rs472 crore

New Delhi: Bharti Infratel Ltd, the telecom tower operator of Bharti Airtel Ltd, on Thursday said its net profit jumped 64% to Rs.472 crore for the fourth quarter ended March from Rs.287 crore in the same quarter last year.
The rise is due to increasing investments in data networks for faster roll-outs being made by telecommunications companies, Bharti Infratel said in a statement on the earnings.
The tower company reported a 4% increase in total revenue for the quarter to Rs.2,790 crore from Rs.2,673.6 crore a year ago.
“The regulatory environment in the telecom sector has improved significantly after the spectrum auctions conducted in February 2014. Operators have made large investments, primarily for data networks using 3G and 4G (LTE) technologies. We believe that faster roll-out of networks will happen over the coming years in order to monetize these investments,” said Akhil Gupta, chairman of Bharti Infratel.
The company posted a 51% jump in net profit for the full year ending March to Rs.1,518 crore—up from Rs.1,002.50 crore in the year-ago period. Total revenue for the year came in at Rs.10,827 crore, up 5% over the Rs.10,272 crore reported for the previous year.
The company ended the year with a total tower base of 83,368 and a sharing factor of two for the current quarter.
In the last two quarters, the company has signed sharing agreements with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd that is expected to roll out its 4G-based high-speed wireless data services across the country over the coming months.
Shares of the company jumped 3.26% to Rs.204.35 on the announcement of the results. The company’s board of directors has proposed a dividend of Rs.4.40 per share for the year making the total payout, including dividend distribution tax, 90% of the year’s profit.