Bharti Airtel's third quarter net falls 41% on Africa, forex loss

Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile phone carrier, posted a bigger-than-expected 41% fall in quarterly profit, as weaker margins from its African operations and currency fluctuations took a toll.

The outlook for India's mobile market - the world's second biggest and the fastest growing by wireless customers - has improved after prices steadied last year following cut rate competition which sent call pricing tumbling in late 2009.

But Africa remains a worry for Bharti where it acquired the loss-making telecoms operations of Zain in 15 countries in a $9 billion deal in June to become the world's fifth-biggest wireless carrier.

It competes in India with 14 other companies including Reliance Communications and Vodafone.

Shares in Bharti, valued at about $26 billion, erased an early fall of 3.3% and climbed 3% to 323.80 rupees as analysts said operational metrics seemed to be getting back on track.

Bharti, 32.2% owned by Southeast Asia's top telecoms firm SingTel, said consolidated net profit fell to Rs13.03 billion ($286 million) for its fiscal third-quarter ended December, from Rs21.95 billion a year ago, based on international accounting standards.

Revenue rose 53% to Rs157.56 billion from Rs103.05 billion a year ago.

A Reuters poll of 12 brokerages had on average expected net profit to fall 26% to Rs16.25 billion on revenue of Rs155.40 billion for the New Delhi-based firm that operates in 19 countries across Asia and Africa with 199.6 million mobile customers at end-December.

Investors are awaiting the take-off of third-generation (3G) mobile services that would boost carriers' revenue from data in India where voice services contribute close to 90 percent of the revenue for cellular companies.