Bharti Airtel quarterly profit rises 27 pct

MUMBAI — Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest mobile telephone company, said Friday that record subscriber growth fueled a 27 percent rise in quarterly profit, but it missed earnings expectations on foreign exchange losses.

Net profit for the July-September quarter was 20.46 billion rupees ($414 million), slightly lower than the consensus expectation because of foreign exchange losses totaling 5.86 billion rupees.

The Indian currency has fallen precipitously against the dollar, trimming profits at many of India's leading companies.

Total revenue for the quarter grew by 42 percent to 90.20 billion rupees.

Bharti, which has been aggressively expanding in rural India, said it added 8.2 million customers during the period for its biggest ever subscriber gain. The company, which is about one third-owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., now has 79.9 million customers.

"With record customer additions every month, Airtel continues to consolidate its leadership position in the market," Bharti's chairman and managing director, Sunil Bharti Mittal, said in a statement.

Net profit margins declined slightly, to 22.7 percent, from 23.9 percent in the prior quarter.

India is the world's second-largest wireless market, after China.

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