Indus Towers

Bharti Infratel announced a smart 68% jump in net profit at Rs.358 crore. Two factors directly helped boost these numbers – one is the the increased sharing on its tower sites, its main core business. Second – one time gain through through merger with Indus Towers. In this quarter, Delhi High Court approved merger of Bharti Infratel with its wholly-owned subsidiary with Indus Towers, effective June 11, 2013. This merger added Rs.35 crore to the net profit though revenue from operations of Indus was lower by 50% during the quarter. EBITDA of Bharti Infra came in at Rs.1055 crore, up from Rs.886 crore in Q1FY13. Total income rose marginally from Rs.2417 crore to Rs.2622 crore.

Bharti Infra’s total tower base stands at 82,321 at end of Q1FY14 and the average sharing factor pr tenancy ratio is at 1.91. 42% stake in Indus is held by Bharti Infra and Vodafone each while Idea which has a 16% stake.  The company had gone public in Dec’12, bringing our what is touted to be the ‘biggest IPO in India’. It raised Rs.3166 crore. The company has used Rs.35 crore out of the total and balance amount of Rs 3,130.7 crore has been deployed in mutual fund investments.  It plans to utilise the whole amount for its expansion plans over a period of three years commencing April 1, 2013. The company expects infrastructure sharing to pick up in the coming quarters with the regulatory environment in the sector settling down, faster 3G rollouts by operators and some early indications of 4G rollout plans.