India’s leading telecom operator, Bharti Airtel reported first quarter results for the period ended June 30, 2010 managing revenues of Rs.12,231 crore at a growth of 17.4%.

The net profit for the quarter however was on a decline by 32% to Rs.1,682 crore as compared to Rs.2,475 crore in the preceding quarter. For this quarter the company’s results included 23 days of the financials of its African operations. The net loss from the African operations for the quarter were at Rs.69.7 crore.

Net profit from the Indian and South Asian operations dropped by 23% to Rs.1,904 crore.

While the company claimed that the Indian mobile services space is finally coming out of the red witnessed all throughout last year due to the per second tariff model and the highly competitive forces, tits EBITDA remain affected because of the same factors. Bharti Airtel’s EBITDA fell to 37.6% for the June quarter as compared to 41% during the corresponding quarter last year. On a consolidated scale, the EBITDA margin was at 36.1%.

Bharti announced its results based on the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The company’s net was also affected by the dollar becoming stronger against the rupee and African currencies. The impact of this was that the company’s derivatives' and exchange fluctuation losses were Rs 216 crore, compared to a gain of Rs 279 crore in the same quarter last year.

The ARPU for the company slid to Rs.215 from Rs.220 in the preceding quarter while the average minutes of usage per user rose by 3% on a sequential basis to 480.

Bharti has earmarked $ 3.1 billion for the current fiscal with $ 2 billion of this to be focused for the Indian and South Asian markets while $ 800 million will be for the recently forayed operations in Africa. $ 350 million will be invested in enhancing its passive infrastructure.

"The first quarter witnessed the successful completion of acquisition of Zain's mobile operation in 15 African countries. We also won valuable 3G (third-generation telecom) and BWA (broadband wireless access) licences in India, which will transfer Airtel into a lifestyle enabler. Our business in India and South Asia got off to a solid start, with robust revenue growth and healthy margin," said Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal, in a statement.

The company also announced that it will acquire Telecom Seychelles which till now was only using Airtel brand name.

The company added 6,489 employees during the quarter taking its total headcount to 24,843 at the end of the quarter.

At the end of the quarter, Bharti Airtel’s overall subscriber base was at 183.3 million with 176.9 million mobile subscribers, 3.15 million telemedia subscribers and 3.243 million digital TV subscribers.