Bharti Airtel prepays ₹7,904 crore to DoT, settles 2012 and 2015 spectrum liabilities
Bharti Airtel prepays ₹7,904 crore to DoT, settles 2012 and 2015 spectrum liabilities
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd on Friday (June 14) said it has prepaid ₹7,904 crore to the Department of Telecom (Government of India).
With this, according to a stock exchange filing, the company has fully prepaid all deferred liabilities of the spectrum acquired in 2012 and 2015, which had the highest interest costs of 9.75% and 10%, respectively.
In January this year, Bharti Airtel had prepaid ₹8,325 crore to the Department of Telecom towards part prepayment of the deferred liabilities of spectrum acquired in the 2015 auction.
Bharti Airtel won spectrum worth ₹29,129.08 crore in the auction held in March 2015. The company had paid ₹11,374.7 crore, while the upfront amount due was ₹7,832.20 crore.
Bharti Airtel reported a 31% year-on-year (YoY) dip in net profit at ₹2,071.6 crore for the fourth quarter that ended March 31, 2024. In the corresponding quarter, Bharti Airtel posted a net profit of ₹3,006 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing.
CNBC-TV18 poll had predicted a profit of ₹2,050 crore for the quarter under review. The company's revenue from operations increased 4% to ₹37,599.1 crore against ₹36,009 crore in the year-ago period. CNBC-TV18 poll had predicted revenue of ₹38,315 crore for the quarter under review.
Overall, the average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter was ₹209 compared to ₹208 in the previous quarter. For the year ended March 31, 2024, Bharti Airtel's profit dropped 10.5% to ₹7,467 crore from ₹8,346 crore in FY23.
The annual revenue from operations of the company increased 7.7% to ₹1,49,982.4 crore during the reported fiscal from ₹1,39,144.8 crore in 2022-23. As of March 31, 2024, the company had 562 million customers, an increase of 8.4% against 518 million in the corresponding quarter last year.
Total minutes of usage on the network during the quarter amounted to 1,347 billion, representing a growth of 8.2% compared to 1,245 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.
Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd ended at ₹1,428.75, up by ₹3.45, or 0.24% on the BSE.