Bharti Airtel reports 89 percent jump in Q4 net profit on rising tariffs

Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's top mobile phone carrier, reported its second consecutive quarter of profit growth, meeting estimates, as reduced competition in the world's second-biggest mobile phone market helped push call prices higher.

Consolidated net profit surged 89 percent to Rs. 962 crores ($158.9 million) for its fiscal fourth quarter to end-March from Rs. 509 crores reported a year earlier, New Delhi-based Bharti Airtel said on Tuesday.

Analysts on average had expected the New Delhi-based company, headed by Indian billionaire Sunil Mittal and nearly a third owned by Singapore Telecommunications, to report a net profit of Rs. 973 crores.

The Indian telecommunications market, which had been hit by fierce competition and a vicious price war, started improving last year following a court order that revoked the permits of several carriers and reduced competition. Bharti Airtel had reported for the December quarter its first profit rise in four years.

The company operates in 20 countries across Asia and Africa and is the world's fourth-biggest cellular carrier by customers.

Idea Cellular on Monday also posted its earnings report for Q4. The company reported an over 91 percent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs. 589.77 crores for the last quarter of 2013-14, on the back of expansion in both voice minutes and mobile data volume.

Earlier this month, Bharti Airtel announced its technology officer, Jagbir Singh, had resigned and that the company plans to promote Abhay Savargaonkar, its chief of network operations, to the post.

"Singh has quit due to personal reasons. Savargaonkar, who has been with the company for about eight years, will replace him," a person familiar with the matter said. An Airtel official confirmed the development.

Written with agency inputs