Bharti Infratel revenue, Capex and Opex for Q2 fiscal 2018-19

Telecom tower company Bharti Infratel announced its consolidated revenue, EBITDA, Opex and Capex for the second quarter ended September 30, 2018.
Bharti Infratel Q3 2018 revenueBharti Infratel has reported consolidated revenue of Rs 3,668 crore (+1 percent), EBITDA of Rs 1,506 crore (–8 percent), operating margin of 41.1 percent and net profit at Rs 600 crore (–6 percent) in Q2 fiscal 2018-19.

The recently completed Vodafone-Idea merger has impacted both Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers business. Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers have received exit notices resulting in exit of 27,447 colocations – representing 13.7 percent of the total consolidated tenancies as on 30 June 2018.

The number of employees at Bharti Infratel has reduced by 7 quarter on quarter and by 62 year on year to 2,225 in Q2.

“The quarter witnessed much anticipated major exits of nearly 55,000 co-locations at Infratel and Indus due to consolidation and merger of operators, particularly merger of Vodafone and Idea Cellular,” Akhil Gupta, chairman of Bharti Infratel, said.

Bharti Infratel operated 39,946 towers with 78,275 co-locations in 11 telecom circles while Indus operated 124,230 towers with 229,136 co-locations in 15 telecom circles.

Net co-locations reduced by 26,266 on consolidated basis and 7,778 on standalone basis. Net co-locations reduced during the quarter has impact of exits of 27,769 on consolidated basis and 8,215 on standalone basis.

There are 4,225 colocations on consolidated basis for which actual exits have not happened as at quarter end. Bharti Infratel and Indus had average sharing factors of 2.06 and 2.02 per tower respectively

Operating expenses were Rs 21,623 million, or 58.9 percent of consolidated revenues from operations. The largest component of expenses was power and fuel, amounting to Rs 14,367 million. The other expenses were rent of Rs 3,168 million, repair & maintenance (operations and maintenance costs of the network) of Rs 2,139 million and employee benefits expenses of Rs 1,222 million.

Bharti Infratel’s Capex reached Rs 4,972 million in Q2 fiscal 2018-19 from Rs 5,163 in Q1, Rs 5,783 million in Q4 fiscal 2017-18, Rs 6,313 million in Q3 and Rs 3,985 million in Q2.