Bharti Airtel in the spotlight

Bharti Airtel is the stock in some blinding limelight today morning with the stock price rising almost 3.5% to Rs.419.70. Its 10% UC for the day is at Rs.446.70.

It was a foregone conclusion that Bharti Airtel will post a loss for Q4FY18 but it surprised one and all with a net profit of Rs.83 crore, down 73% (QoQ). The market is unmindful of the drop in profit as long as there is a profit! The profit was mainly thanks to the bounce back in the African operations which posted a record profit of Rs.699 crore while Indian operations for the first time in 15 years, reported a loss.

Its revenue for the quarter fell 3% at Rs.19.634 crore while average revenue per user (ARPU), for the 7th straight time fell to a new low at Rs.116 v/s Rs.123 (QoQ). EBITDA was down 7% at Rs.6930 crore while margins fell to 35.3%.

Its net debt currently stands at Rs.95,228 crore.

The company also approved the merger of its tower company, Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel. Merger ratio for the deal will be 1,565 shares of Bharti Infratel for every one Indus Towers share.