Bharti Airtel ARPU touching 200 an encouraging sign: Naveen Kulkarni

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Naveen Kulkarni, CIO, Axis Securities, says “the exceptional losses in Bharti Airtel’s African business due to devaluation of the Nigerian currency was not completely unexpected as analysts were expecting something on the lines that there will be a significant impact on their transnational effect on the Africa revenues.”What is your first take on Bharti Airtel numbers? There has been an exceptional loss on the back of Nigerian currency devaluation. Were the analysts factoring in this sort of an exceptional loss and what is your first take on the numbers?The exceptional part, of course. is a difficult aspect to model but more or less I would say that we were expecting something on these lines that there will be a significant impact on their transnational effect on the Africa revenues.

The important aspect here is that ARPU has finally hit the Rs 200 mark and that is a very important number. It is a psychological number that Bharti has managed to achieve. I would say that the ARPU number exceeded our expectations by about a percent or so and reaching the 200 mark is definitely an encouraging sign.What is your take on the stock price expectation because the stock has drifted lower from hitting its all-time high levels to finally hitting the 900 mark. What is the first reaction?I would say the ARPU number Rs 200 looks encouraging.

It is more or less what Bharti had promised that they have managed to achieve. I would say that the stock should be opening probably slightly higher. I am not expecting too much based on these numbers but I would say that there is a good chance that the stock could do well.