Bharti Hexacom Q4 Profit Up 10.2% on ARPU Rise, Customer Adds

New Delhi, May 14 (PTI) Bharti Hexacom on Tuesday posted over 10 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit for the March quarter to Rs 223 crore on the back of strong customer additions and ARPU increase in mobile services.

The total revenue for the March quarter stood at Rs 1,868 crore, up 7.8 per cent over the corresponding period a year earlier.

Bharti Hexacom, which offers consumer mobile services, fixed-line telephone, and broadband services in Rajasthan and the Northeast circles, reported a net profit of Rs 223 crore for the March quarter, up 10.2 per cent over the year-ago period.

The board of the company also declared a final dividend of Rs 4 per fully paid-up equity share of face value of Rs 5 each.

Mobile services revenues were up 6.8 per cent year-on-year, led by strong 4G/5G customer additions and increase in average revenue per user (ARPU), the company said.

"Mobile revenues grew 6.8 per cent year-on-year on account of improved realisation as well as strong 4G/5G customer additions during the year. ARPU for the quarter stood at Rs 204 as compared to Rs 189 in Q4, FY23 on the back of continued mix improvement and focus on quality acquisitions," Bharti Hexacom said in a release.

For the full year ended March 31, 2024, the net income (after exceptional items) came in at Rs 504 crore, which was 8.2 per cent lower than the previous fiscal year.

Revenues at Rs 7,089 crore for the entire FY24, were up 7.7 per cent on a comparable basis.

"We continue to garner strong market share of 4G/5G customers and added 2.5 million 4G/5G data customers to our network over last year, an increase of 14.5 per cent year on year. We continue to deliver industry-leading ARPU along with growing average data usage per data customer at 24.5 GBs/month," the company said.

Bharti Airtel's arm Bharti Hexacom made its stock market debut in April after the successful completion of initial public offering, which was also the first public issue of 2024-25. The IPO entailed only offer-for-sale, without any fresh issue component.

In a release on Q4 results, Bharti Hexacom said it rolled out about 830 towers in the quarter to further strengthen network coverage and provide seamless connectivity.

"We rolled out about 4000 towers in last 12 months to expand coverage and connectivity in rural as well as urban areas," the release added.

Homes and office business maintained a rapid growth trajectory and delivered revenue growth of 26.6 per cent YoY, reflecting the outcome of the company's strategy to rapidly expand cities under coverage and deepen presence in cities and towns.