NEW DELHI - India's top mobile operator Bharti Airtel is reporting a 22 per cent drop in quarterly profit due to higher interest rates and 3G network rollout costs — its eighth straight quarter of decline in net profit.
The company said Wednesday that profit for its fiscal third quarter ending December was 10.1 billion rupees ($206.3 million) on sales of 184.8 billion rupees ($3.7 billion).
Bharti, the world's the world's fifth-biggest mobile phone carrier by subscribers, reported strong revenue growth in Africa.
Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said the company has "crossed the 50 million customer milestone" in Africa, where revenues rose by 16.1 per cent year-on-year to $1.05 billion during the quarter.
Bharti's share price fell 5.2 per cent on the benchmark Sensex.