Bharti Airtel's net income nearly halves Bharti Airtel, the world's fourth-largest mobile operator by subscribers, reported poor full-year results on Thursday, undermining hopes that a recent bout of consolidation might bring about a speedy revival in India's battered telecoms market. Weighed down both by weaker profits from its domestic Indian business and widening losses in its 17-country African division, the company said net profit fell 47 per cent year-on-year to Rs22.8bn ($423m). India's intensively competitive mobile sector has slimmed down substantially over the past year, as roughly half a dozen smaller operators exited the market after a series of license cancellations and other regulatory changes. However, Bharti Airtel's performance undermined expectations that this might in turn boost the industry's remaining players, as its net profits halved to Rs5.1bn ($95m) in the fourth quarter year-on-year, repeating a pattern in which the company has reported lower earnings for more than a dozen consecutive quarters. Bharti, India's largest mobile operator, blamed its weak figures on higher depreciation and interest costs and a one-off tax payment, while taking comfort from an increase in customer numbers following the recent market shake-out. Sunil Bharti Mittal, the group's chairman said: "I am pleased to see that market corrections have started with improvements in the quality of customer acquisitions and that pricing stability is returning to the sector in India." The industry's surviving larger operators, including Bharti, Idea Cellular and Vodafone of the UK, have gained market share in recent months. This has raised expectations that sharp tariff increases for consumers might follow, a development many analysts see as crucial to increased future profitability in the sector. "Results from Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel indicate that the competitive environment is becoming better, with earnings before the deduction of interest, tax and amortisation growing well for good companies and some consolidation happening in the market," said Shobhit Khare, a telecoms analyst at brokerage Motilal Oswal. Bharti's African business, the result of its $10.7bn acquisition of Zain in 2010, reported higher losses of Rs22bn ($410m) against a backdrop of increasing competition. In spite of this Bharti has sought to expand further in the fast-growing region, and last month announced plans to buy Warid Telecom Uganda, a unit of Abu Dhabi-based Warid Telecom. "With Africa over its peak of organic investments we are optimistic about the potential for improved market shares and margin expansions," Mr Mittal said. The group's full-year revenues rose to Rs803bn, up 12 per cent from the year before. Bharti's stock fell sharply on the announcement of its results, before making up some of the losses, down 0.5 per cent in afternoon trading in Mumbai at Rs317.