Bharti Infratel posts 12 percent net profit in Q2

Mumbai – Telecommunications tower operator Bharti Infratel Ltd reported on Monday a 12 percent rise in quarterly profit on higher sales from leasing mobile masts to carriers.

Bharti Infratel, majority owned by India`s top telecommunications carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd , said consolidated net profit rose to 2.77 billion rupees for its fiscal second quarter ended September 30 from 2.48 billion rupees reported a year earlier.

Revenue rose five percent from a year earlier to 26.84 billion rupees, the New Delhi-based company said.

Four analysts on average expected the company to report a profit of 3.54 billion rupees, while the average revenue estimate of five analysts was 27.16 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

Bharti Infratel, which raised USD 750 million in December in what was India`s biggest IPO in two years, owns 42 percent of Indus Towers, the world`s biggest tower company by number of telecommunication towers.

At 11.03 a.m., shares in Bharti Infratel were down 2.8 percent after the results in a Mumbai market that was up 0.2 percent. The stock is down 30 percent from its IPO price of 220 rupees.