Airtel may post a profit in Oct-Dec period: Analysts

Kolkata: After reporting losses for six straight quarters, India’s No. 2 carrier Bharti Airtel is likely to report a net profit in the October-December period — unless there are unforeseen exceptional items — boosted by the sustained recovery of its India mobile business, strong customer additions and a surge in 2G-to-4G user conversions, analysts said.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are likely to report sequential gains in mobile revenue and operating income in the fiscal third quarter, helped by continued 4G subscriber additions and the fully captured impact of the December 2019 tariff hikes.

Loss-making Vodafone Idea, though, is likely to continue losing customers and report sequential dips in revenue and operating income in the December quarter, primarily hit by lower network-related capex spends that have shackled its ability to compete effectively with Airtel and Jio on the 4G turf.