Bharti Airtel, on Tuesday reported a 89 percent rise in the fourth quarter net profit at Rs. 962 crores on account of higher revenue from data business and rise in mobile services rates.

Total revenue for the fourth quarter was up 13.5 percent to Rs 22,219 crore as compared to Rs 19,582 crore a year ago. For fully 2013-14 fiscal, the net profit rose 21.8 percent to Rs 2,773 crore as against Rs 2,276 crore in previous year. Revenue was up 11.5 percent to Rs 85,746 crore.

Airtel India said its 3G subscriber base increased 16 percent to 10,982,000 in Q4 FY 2014 from 9,485,000 in Q3 FY 2014, total data user base of Bharti Airtel India increased 7 percent to 58,078,000 from 54,429,000, Data usage rose 20 percent to 46,690 million MB. Data usage per user grew 11 percent to 277 MB, Airtel ARPU increased 5 percent to Rs 79. Total ARPU increased 1 percent to Rs 196 and Bharti Airtel’s 3G sites increased to 31,301 from 28,179. The number of overall telecom sites grew to 138,755 from 137,069.

 “The year has ended on a satisfying note, both in operational and financial terms. I would like to place on record the outstanding quality of work put in by our employees, who have been instrumental in this achievement. Network and spectrum investments, a refreshed IT strategy, innovative service platforms and an energised organisation will enable sustained growth in India and South Asia”, said Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia.

Annual consolidated revenues were mainly driven by mobile data (up 96.3 per cent), DTH (27.5 per cent), Airtel Business (19.1 per cent) and South Asia (41.2 per cent).

“The quarter was impacted by the seasonal downturn in parts of Africa and regulatory interventions in Nigeria. In the last year, we successfully integrated the acquired business in Uganda, and are confident that we will repeat the success in Congo B. Our teams remain focused on accelerating growth through improving the quality of network, growing the data business and expanding Airtel money base”, said Christian de Faria, MD and CEO, Africa. 

                                          

Across its 20-market footprint in Asia and Africa the company serves 295.9 million customers, an increase of 9.1%.