Though Bharti Airtel posted its slowest growth in revenue and profitability amid falling tariffs in a market getting crowded with around 12 operators, CEO Manoj Kohli is upbeat that the trend of strong players emerging stronger is becoming evident. In an exclusive interview with FE?s Anandita Singh Mankotia and Rishi Raj, Kohli said that the phase of hyper competition in the sector would continue for the next few quarters. But from the second half of the year, there would be more orderly growth followed by consolidation early next year. Excerpts:
Bharti Airtel registered its slowest revenue and profitability growth of 1% and 2% respectively. In the next couple of quarters, do you think you will be able to hold on to this or will it go down further? When do you see your firm returning to either double digit growth or even a high single digit growth?
Our focus is on revenue market share, implying we focus on those customers who are revenue earning ones. As long as we are going strong on this front, we will be doing well. Looking against this backdrop as well as in the light of a crowded market with rock bottom tariffs, we have 32% of revenue market share, which is quite high. Had it not been for the ban on pre-paid connections in J&K, it would have been even higher. As long as we maintain our leadership position in this aspect, the overall results would be healthy. Further, we are creating newer revenue streams like DTH, m-commerce, global data business and so on. The second issue is that revenue streams in e-commerce and global data business are catching up. We are also maintaining strong cash flow, so this too is a satisfying trend.
Given that the market is getting crowded by the day with newer operators, do you feel the flat growth you registered in Q3 will continue?
It is very difficult to be God in this sector, but of course a couple of more launches would happen. We see some stability coming from the second half of the year and a period of consolidation happening early next year onwards. Thereafter one can expect more orderly growth.
When you say consolidation early next year, do you mean that there would be more M&As in the domestic telecom space?
See, consolidation in terms of domestic M&As would certainly happen but that would largely depend on the government?s policy on this issue. Currently, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is working on the subject. So let?s see what it says and what the government finally decides.
Though the revenue and profitability growth has slowed, you said that in some ways traffic and customers are returning to established players. Could you elaborate on this?
What I meant was that the customers have reacted positively to our new tariff packages on local call rates, STD and roaming, which saw our overall minutes going up.