Kolkata:
Bharti Infratel, whose stock plunged over 10% on Thursday after weak fourth-quarter results, said the worst is over in terms of tenancy losses on its telecom tower sites, expecting sustained
4G network expansion to drive revenue growth in the coming months.
“Vodafone Idea has just concluded its rights issue and Bharti Airtel’s will open soon, which will give them adequate fresh funds to engage in aggressive tower network build-outs for expanding 4G coverage amid surging data consumption, a scenario that promises a favourable impact on our business prospects,” Bharti Infratel chairman Akhil Gupta said.
The top executive spoke on an earnings call a day after India’s sole listed tower company reported flat net profit growth in the March quarter, stung by a sharp fall in ‘co-locations’ at its sites amid rapid consolidation in the sector. Co-locations are points where a tower firm deploys mobile telecom antennae of multiple carriers on a single structure.
Bharti Infratel shares declined 10.3% to close at Rs 270.95 on the BSE, a day after the company’s consolidated net profit for the January-March period came in at Rs 608 crore compared with Rs 606 crore a year ago and Rs 648 crore in the previous three-month period. Quarterly consolidated revenue fell 2% on-year and 1% sequentially to Rs 3,600 crore.
The company’s leadership is pinning its hopes on strong revenue growth in the coming quarters as it does not expect the Big 3 telcos —
Vodafone Idea,
Bharti Airtel and Reliance
Jio Infocomm — to compromise on network coverage, especially to maintain their current revenue market share levels.
“Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Jio will pump in capex to ensure similar 4G coverage to hold on to revenue share, which augers well for tower-cos,” Bharti Infratel managing director DS Rawat said.