Bharti Airtel's marketing expense increases 6% quarterly; net profit soars 167% to Rs 3593 crore

Bharti Airtel's net profit for Q2 FY25 soared 167 per cent to Rs 3,593 crore, up from Rs 1,341 crore in the same quarter last year, fueled by robust performances in its India and Africa operations. However, this impressive growth fell short of analysts' expectations, which had estimated a net profit of Rs 4,398 crore, according to a Bloomberg poll.

According to a CNBC TV18 poll, Bharti Airtel was expected to post Q2 profit at Rs 4,336 crore and revenue was estimated at Rs 40,835 crore.

The company's sales and marketing expenses increases 6.14 per cent Q-o-Q to Rs 2,882 crore in Q2 FY25 from Rs 2,715 in last quarter of the same financial year.

Additionally, the India revenue of Bharti Airtel increased by 16.9 per cent year-on-year to Rs 31,561 crore, driven by a strong 18.5 per cent growth in the mobile services segment. This growth was supported by tariff hikes and a rise in smartphone penetration. The average revenue per user (ARPU) in the India mobile segment climbed to Rs 233, up from Rs 203 a year earlier, reflecting the company’s continued efforts to optimize its customer mix and enhance its premium offerings.

When it comes to the segment wise revenue, digital TV services contributed Rs 758 crore to the overall revenue of the company in Q2 of FY25, witnessing an decrease of 2.38 per cent from Rs 777 crore in last quarter of same financial year. The company reported a 12 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue from operations, reaching Rs 41,473 crore for the July-September quarter. Meanwhile, the homes business reported a 17.3 per cent revenue increase, driven by the addition of 583,000 new customers, bringing its customer base to 8.6 million.