Bharti Infratel adds more telecom towers during Dec quarter

Bharti Infratel has reported revenue of Rs 2006.8 crore (+5 percent) and EBITDA of Rs 1016.9 crore (+48 percent) with EBITDA margin of 50.7 percent during the December quarter of fiscal 2020.
Bharti Infratel telecom towers IndiaCapex of Bharti Infratel rose 8 percent to Rs 234.6 crore.

The number of telecom towers increased to 94,244 in December quarter from 93,421 in the September quarter. Total co-locations reached 174,150 in December quarter from 173,406 in September quarter.

Bharti Infratel operated 41,471 towers with 76,322 co-locations in 11 telecom circles while Indus operated 125,649 towers with 232,924 co-locations in 15 telecom circles. With Bharti Infratel’s towers and Bharti Infratel’s 42 percent interest in Indus, the telecom tower company has an economic interest in the equivalent of 94,244 towers and 174,150 co-locations in India as of December 31, 2019.

Co-locations churn during the quarter ended December 31, 2019 on consolidated and standalone basis are 1,149 and 471 respectively. There are 2,798 co-locations on consolidated basis as of December 31, 2019 which are billed during the quarter and actual exits have not happened.

Net co-locations increased during the quarter on consolidated and standalone basis are 744 and 146 respectively. Bharti Infratel and Indus had average sharing factors of 1.85 and 1.85 per tower for the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

Total expenses for the December quarter were Rs 17,902 million, or 49 percent of revenues from operations. The largest component of expenses was power and fuel, amounting to Rs 13,672 million. The other expenses were operations and maintenance costs of the network at Rs 1,775 million and employee benefits expenses of Rs 1,177 million.