Airtel posts its first quarterly loss in 14 years

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel Ltd posted its first quarterly loss in 14 years amid a brutal price war unleashed by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd that has ravaged its rivals and reshaped India’s telecom market.

New Delhi-based Bharti Airtel swung to a ₹2,866 crore loss in the quarter ended 30 June from a net profit of ₹97 crore in the year earlier as finance costs rose and it incurred a one-time loss of ₹1,445 crore.

Bharti Airtel, which was till last year India’s biggest telecom operator, has been struggling to raise prices and add subscribers because of the tariff war, although a wave of consolidation in India’s telecom market has wiped out smaller telcos and forced Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd to merge.