Airtel's mobile tower arm Bharti Infratel posts 25% growth in Q3 net profit

Mobile tower company Bharti Infratel on Monday reported 25% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 620 crore for the December quarter of the current fiscal.

It had posted net profit of Rs 495 crore in the same period of last fiscal, 2015-16.

The consolidated revenue of mobile tower arm of Bharti Airtel increased by 10% to Rs 3,400 crore during the October-December quarter of 2016-17, as against Rs 3,105.5 crore posted in the same period of 2015-16.

"Post large investments in spectrum, operators are focused on strengthening their network capacities and coverage, resulting in highest ever addition of co-locations in this quarter," Bharti Infratel Chairman Akhil Gupta said.

"With deployment capabilities and strong balance sheet, Bharti Infratel is fully geared up to capitalise on this opportunity and partner the telecom operators in even faster rollout of data networks," he added.

On standalone basis, the company added 791 mobile towers taking the total number to 38,997 towers at the end of December 31, 2016.

The consolidated tower base of Bharti Infratel, including its share in Indus Towers, stood at 90,255 towers at the end of reported quarter.

Bharti Infratel stock closed at Rs 347.55 a unit, down by 1.6%, on BSE.