bharathi airtel

Bharti Airtel on Thursday reported a 24-per cent rise in its net profit at Rs. 2,517 crore in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal. The company also said its merger talks with South Africa’s MTN were still continuing.
Consolidated revenues for the quarter grew by 17.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs. 9,942 crore as per U.S. accounting standards. The telecom company made a foreign exchange gain of Rs. 250 crore in the quarter against a loss of Rs. 168 crore a year ago. Stating that growth in rural customer numbers and foreign currency gains helped the company improve performance, Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint Managing Director Manoj Kohli pointed out that competition led to a drop in key parameters such as average revenue per user and minutes of usage. Airtel added 85.5 lakh customers, its highest-ever for any quarter to date on a net basis.
Referring to the ongoing talks between Bharti and MTN, Bharti Enterprises Deputy Group CEO and Managing Director Akhil Gupta said talks were going on between the companies to form a global business combination. Notably, Bharti Airtel and MTN had revived talks over the $23 billion merger in May.