BENGALURU (Reuters) -Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s No.2 telecom carrier by subscribers, on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations, as 4G subscriber growth moderated.
The company’s consolidated revenue from operations rose to 360.09 billion rupees ($4.40 billion) for the quarter ended March 31, from 315 billion rupees a year ago, it said in an exchange filing.
Analysts, on an average, had expected a revenue of 365.52 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Analysts have flagged concerns of slowing revenue growth due to the absence of tariff hikes in recent years to cushion the load of telecom firms spending billions of dollars on buying 5G spectrum auction last August.
Airtel said its expenses in the quarter rose nearly 12%.
The company’s average revenue per user (ARPU), a key performance indicator for telecom firms, was at 193 rupees, flat from the quarter ago, but up 8.4% year-on-year.
Last month, market leader Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of conglomerate Reliance Industries, said its fourth-quarter ARPU stood at 178.8 rupees, an increase of only 0.3% from a quarter ago and a 6.7% climb from a year ago.
Airtel said it added 7.4 million 4G data customers in the March quarter, an increase of 3.4% from a quarter ago. It had posted a 3.1% increase in 4G users in the December quarter.
Shares of the company closed 1.2% lower at 787.35 rupees ahead of the results. They declined 7% in the March quarter.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
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