Bharti sees operating margin as sustainable

New Delhi, Apr 29 (ANI): India's top mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, sees its current operating margin as sustainable, director Akhil Gupta said on Wednesday.

"I think anything around 40 per cent is pretty decent with this bond. But of course, if you do anything more in terms of converting opex into capex or vice-versa, this ratio can change," said Gupta.harti, which announced its March quarter results earlier, recorded an operating margin of 40.7 per cent in the March quarter.

It reported a forecast-beating 21 per cent rise in quarterly profit, as it added more users in the world's fastest-growing wireless market and kept tariffs steady unlike its rivals.

Bharti, in which Southeast Asia's top phone firm SingTel owns about 31 per cent, said January-March net profit rose to 22.39 billion rupees under U.S. accounting standards from 18.52 billion a year ago.

New Delhi-based Bharti added 8.3 million mobile users last quarter to boost its total customer base to nearly 94 million. The company has a market share of about 24 percent.

Shares in Bharti fell 13 percent in January-March, under performing a 0.6 per cent rise in the broader market. (ANI)