Bharti's Q4 net jumps 49 per cent to Rs 682 crore

Leading mobile services firm Bharti Airtel on Friday posted a 49 per cent increase in its forth quarter net profit.

Leading mobile services firm Bharti Airtel on Friday posted a 49 per cent increase in its forth quarter net profit to Rs 682 crore over the same period a year ago as user numbers surged in the world's fastest growing wireless market.

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With a market capitalisation of Rs 76,000 crore, Bharti, in which Singapore Telecom owns 30.84 per cent also registered a 47 per cent rise in its total revenue at Rs 3411 crore on a year-on-year basis during the quarter.

For the full year 2005-06, the operator with a market cap of about $16.9 billion reported a 51 per cent rise in the net profit to Rs 2258 crore while its revenue grew 46 per cent over the previous year by 46 per cent to Rs 11,663 crore.

Bharti's mobile user base rose 78 per cent on year to 1.96 crore at the end of March, the highest ever net addition of 91 lakh customers in a year. Even during the quarter, the company added 34 lakh customers, which is also the highest ever in any single quarter. Total users including fixed-line customers -- surged 77 per cent to 2.09 crore.

On dividend to shareholders, Mittal said, "at present we plan to plough back our profits into the operations, so the thought of dividend has not crossed our mind."