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Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Wednesday reported a 29 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 512 crore (Rs 5.12 billion) for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, mainly on account of increase in finance cost and forex losses due to rupee depreciation.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 721.2 crore (Rs 7.21 billion) for the same period in last financial year.
"The continued depreciation of the Indian rupee has resulted in forex restatement and derivative losses of Rs 342 crore (Rs 3.42 billion) versus Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million0 loss for Q2, FY'13. Consequently, the consolidated net income came at Rs 512 crore, as against Rs 721 crore in the corresponding quarter last year," Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
The company's consolidated net debt has reduced to $9,697 million resulting in the net debt to EBITDA ratio (in US dollar terms) at 2.18 times as compared to 2.59 times at the end of the same quarter last year, it added.
The consolidated revenues of the company, however, grew by 10 per cent to Rs 21,342.8 crore (Rs 213.42 billion) from Rs 19,408.5 crore (Rs 194.08 billion) in the corresponding quarter last year.
Bharti Airtel saw 100 per cent increase in its revenue from the mobile Internet segment at Rs 1,503 crore (Rs 15.03 billion), accounting for 39.1 per cent of the overall incremental revenue.
"Mobile Internet is now a major engine of growth for Airtel across all geographies," Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said in the statement.
The company had last month increased rates of mobile internet by about 25 per cent and reduced benefits under certian schemes by about 50 per cent. Airtel saw 28.8 per cent increase in revenue of Digital TV and 20.8 per cent in airtel business (B2B) division.