Together good things happen - Airtel

Dear Shareholders,
The directors have pleasure in presenting the fifteenth annual
report on the business and operations of the Company
together with audited financial statements and accounts for
the year ended March 31, 2010.
OVERVIEW
LIQUIDITY
report
Bharti Airtel is one of Asia’s leading telecommunication
service providers with presence in all the 22 licensed
jurisdictions (known as Telecom Circles) in India and also in Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh. The Company served an aggregate of
130.69 mn customers as on March 31, 2010 in India;
including 127.62 mn customers using GSM services and 3.07
mn customers using fixed line and/or broadband (DSL)
services. The Company offers an integrated suite of
telecommunication services to enterprise customers, in
addition to providing national and international long
distance connectivity. The Company also deploys, owns and
manages passive infrastructure for telecommunication
services through its subsidiary company, Bharti Infratel
Limited, which also owns 42% stake in Indus Towers Limited.
Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers are the top two providers of
passive infrastructure services in the country.
FINANCIAL RESULTS AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Financial Highlights of Consolidated Statement of
Operations of the Company
(Amount in Rs mn)
Particulars Financial Year Y-o-Y
2009-10 2008-09 Growth
Gross revenue 418,295 373,521 12%
EBITDA 168,473 152,858 10%
Cash profit from operations 174,728 135,769 29%
Earnings before taxation 108,954 85,910 27%
Net profit / (loss) 91,631 78,590 17%
Financial Highlights of Standalone Statement of
Operations of the Company (Legal entity)
(Amount in Rs mn)
Particulars Financial Year Y-o-Y
2009-10 2008-09 Growth
Gross revenue 356,095 340,143 5%
EBITDA 138,698 131,918 5%
Cash profit from operations 148,151 115,686 28%
Earnings before taxation 106,992 81,615 31%
Net profit / (loss) 94,262 77,438 22%
The Company meets its working capital requirement by
having suitable commercial agreement with its creditors and
sufficient standby credit lines with banks and financial
institutions. It deploys a robust cash management system to
ensure timely availability of funds and its deployment. The
Company has been able to optimise finance cost and
generate funds for expansion by minimising the amount of
funds tied-up in the current assets.
As on March 31, 2010, the Company has cash and bank
balance of Rs 25,786 mn and marketable securities of
Rs 51,512 mn. The Company actively manages the short-term
liquidity to generate optimum returns by investments made
in debt and money market instruments including liquid and
income debt fund schemes, fixed maturity plans and other
similar instruments.
The Company foresees liquidity requirements for funding the
3G spectrum and BWA spectrum auction fees. The strength of
the Company's balance sheet has enabled the Company to
adequately tie up funding for expected 3G and BWA liquidity
requirements on favorable terms.
On March 30, 2010, the Company has also announced
acquisition of Zain Africa B.V. in a USD 10.7 bn deal. The
Company has tied up adequate funding to cover the deal.
The Company expects to maintain a comfortable liquidity
position post payment of spectrum fees and closure of the
acquisition.
GENERAL RESERVE
Out of total profit of Rs 94,262 mn for the financial year
2009-10, an amount of Rs 7,100 mn has been transferred to
the General Reserve.
DIVIDEND
The Board has recommended a final dividend of Re 1 per
equity share of Rs 5 each (20% of face value) for the financial
year 2009-10. The total dividend payout will amount to
Rs 4,443 mn, including Rs 645 mn as tax on dividend. The
payment of dividend is subject to the approval of the
shareholders in the ensuing annual general meeting of the
Company.
SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES
As on the date of this report, the Company has twenty
subsidiary companies namely (i) Bharti Airtel Services Limited
(ii) Bharti Hexacom Limited (iii) Bharti Infratel Limited (iv)
Bharti Infratel Ventures Limited (v) Bharti M Commerce
Services Limited (vi) Bharti Telemedia Limited (vii) Bharti Airtel
(Canada) Limited (viii) Bharti Airtel International (Mauritius)
Limited (ix) Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) B.V. (x)
Bharti Airtel Holdings (Singapore) Pte. Limited (xi) Bharti
Airtel (Hongkong) Limited (xii) Bharti Airtel (Japan) Kabushiki
Kaisha (xiii) Bharti Airtel Lanka (Private) Limited (xiv) Bharti
Airtel (Singapore) Private Limited (xv) Bharti Airtel (UK)
Limited (xvi) Bharti Airtel (USA) Limited (xvii) Bharti Infratel
Lanka (Private) Limited (xviii) Bharti International (Singapore)
Pte. Limited (xix) Network i2i Limited and (xx) Warid Telecom
International Limited.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 212(8) of the
Companies Act, 1956, the Central Government has vide letter
No. 47/305/2010-CL-III dated April 27, 2010, granted an