Reporting a complete turn around in its financial performance, Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited has posted its first full fiscal of net profit. The company has recorded Rs 619 crore net profit for the fiscal ended March 31, 2004 as against a loss of Rs 134 crore in previous year.The company has also become another Indian firm in infotech and telecom sector to join the billion dollar club. It has achieved an annual revenues of Rs 5,002 crore for the fiscal 2003-04, registered a growth of 64 pc over Rs 3,050 crore of the previous year.“Last 12 months has been the most challenging for us in the telecom business with BSNL coming up with predatory prices, mammoth launch of services by Reliance followed by Tatas and most of the regulatory issues going against GSM operators. But Bharti has been successful in managing these challenges,” Bharti group chairman and managing director Sunil Bharti Mittal told the media in Delhi on friday to announce company’s financial results.Talking about the future plans, Mittal said that the company plans to complete its all india foot print by September this year. “We have decided to roll out our services in markets like North-East, Bihar and J-K. There will be a string of new launches in these circles from July onwards,” he said. The company will be making a capital investment of $700-750 million for expansion and upgradation of its mobile and basic network in this fiscal. The investment will be primarily funded from internal accruals. Mittal said that India was poised to have 100 mn mobile phone users in next two years and Bharti aimed to capture 25 pc market share. The company is in talks with VSNL to share its long distance infrastructure.
