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March 25, 2013Bharti Airtel Ltd
Bharti Airtel Ltd needs no introduction of its own as the company is one of the world’s leading providers of telecommunication services with presence in 19 countries including India & South Asia and Africa. The Company is the largest wireless service provider in India, based on the number of customers. The Company also offers Digital TV and IPTV Services with all its services rendered under a unified brand ‘airtel’.
The company operates in four strategic business units, namely:
- Mobile
- Telemedia
- Enterprise
- Digital TV
The company offers its services across wide number of cities. Some of the key facts are mentioned below:
- The mobile business offers services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
- The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 95 Indian cities
- The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across India
- The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to telcos.
Apart from the telecommunication services, the company also deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations under their subsidiary Bharti Infratel Ltd.
Read more about Mobile Phone Companies in India.
Bharti Infratel proudly owns 42% of Indus Towers Ltd thus making both Bharti Infratel Ltd and Indus Towers Ltd the largest passive infrastructure service providers for telecom services in India.
Services Offered by Bharti Airtel
Today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and the third largest in the world.
1.Airtel Mobile Services
Airtel operates in all telecom circles of India and is present in 5,121 census towns and 457,053 non-census towns and villages, covering approximately 86.6% of the country’s population as of September 2012.
2. Airtel 3G
With the 3G auctioning in 2010, the company agreed to pay the Indian government Rs. 122.95 billion (US$2.24 billion) for spectrum in 13 circles, the most amount spent by an operator in this auction. Airtel 3G services are available in 200 cities through its network and in 500 cities through intra-circle roaming arrangements with other operators. Airtel has about 5.4 million 3G customers of which 4 million are 3G data customers as of September 2012.
3. Airtel 4G
On 19 May 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India ended. Airtel paid 33.1436 billion for spectrum in 4 circles: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata. The company was allocated 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 GHz frequency band. On 10 April 2012, Airtel launched 4G services using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata, becoming the first company in India to offer 4G services.
Read more about Telecom Industry India.
4. Airtel Money
Airtel has started a new mCommerce platform called Airtel Money with collaboration with Infosys and SmartTrust (now Giesecke & Devrient). With the help of Airtel Money, users can transfer money, pay bills and other financial transactions using mobile phone.
5. Airtel SmartDrive
SmartDrive is navigation app exclusive to Airtel customers. The app features voice-based turn by turn navigation, real time information update on traffic, approximate time of the travel on the basis of the traffic situation on the various routes and also lets users see their location on the map and plan the journey accordingly.
6. Airtel Network Experience Center
Airtel has a Network Experience Center (NEC) which observes end to end customer experience, in near real time, along with the standard network elements on Airtel’s operations. The NEC is located in in Manesar, Haryana and went live on 31 October 2012. It is the first such facility in India and will be able to monitor Airtel’s network performance across mobile, fixed line, broadband, DTH, M-Commerce, enterprise services, International Cable Systems and internet peering points from a single location.
Airtel’s Financials as on January 3, 2013
| MARKET CAP(RS CR) | EPS (TTM) |
| 1,24,464.05 | 16.46 |
| P/E | INDUSTRY P/E |
| 19.91 | 26.5 |
| BOOK VALUE (RS) | PRICE/BOOK |
| 130.16 | 2.52 |
| DIV (%) | DIV YIELD (%) |
| 20.00% | 0.31% |
| P/C | Mkt Price |
| 10.23 | 327.75 |
Source: Moneycontrol.com
Airtel Detailed Financials and Key Ratios
| Mar ’12 | Mar ’11 | |
| Investment Valuation Ratios | ||
| Face Value | 5 | 5 |
| Dividend Per Share | 1 | 1 |
| Operating Profit Per Share (Rs) | 36.14 | 35.29 |
| Net Operating Profit Per Share (Rs) | 109.55 | 100.11 |
| Profitability Ratios | ||
| Operating Profit Margin(%) | 32.98 | 35.25 |
| Profit Before Interest And Tax Margin(%) | 18.65 | 24.12 |
| Gross Profit Margin(%) | 18.76 | 24.22 |
| Net Profit Margin(%) | 13.69 | 20.21 |
| Liquidity And Solvency Ratios | ||
| Current Ratio | 1.01 | 0.7 |
| Quick Ratio | 1.28 | 0.77 |
| Debt Equity Ratio | 0.29 | 0.27 |
Source: Capitaline Database
If we look at the ratios we see that the company continues to maintain a good D/E ratio and have improved on its Net Operating profit per share as well. Despite the fact that the company has declined heavily on its Margin as compared to the year 2011, the outlook of the company remains stable for the fact that it has huge market share in India and is the only provider of 4G services in the country as well.