Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said its net profit during the October-December quarter declined 27% sequentially to Rs 830 crore (after exceptional items), missing Street estimates. In the preceding quarter, the country’s second-largest telecom operator had booked a one-time gain of Rs 722 crore on account of spectrum sale to Reliance Jio. Adjusting for this, the net profit in the preceding quarter would have stood at Rs 594 crore. During the December 2021 quarter, the net profit before exceptional gain was Rs 807 crore. Bharti’s board on Tuesday approved an enabling provision for a fundraise of up to Rs 7,500 crore through the issuance of various debt instruments to refinance borrowings. Our balance sheet is robust and we are now generating healthy free cash flows. This has enabled us to recently prepay some of our spectrum liabilities to the government thereby reducing the interest burden,” Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India and South Asia. The company’s consolidated revenues rose 5.4% on a sequential basis to Rs 29,867 crore, beating estimates. Bharti’s consolidated Ebitda beat estimates coming in at Rs 14,905 crore, up 6.32% compared with the preceding quarter, aided by tariff hikes undertaken by the company. The Ebitda margin expanded to 49.9% from 49.5% in the preceding quarter. The company’s India revenues increased by 5.14% sequentially at Rs 20,913 crore, while mobile revenues were up 5.93% quarter-on-quarter at Rs 16,092 crore. The average revenue per user (Arpu) saw a jump of 5.9% quarter-on-quarter at Rs 163 against Rs 153 in the preceding quarter. Bharti’s Arpu continues to be the best in the industry, remaining ahead of Reliance Jio’s Rs 151.6. The growth in Arpu was on the back of tariff hikes and continued momentum in 4G customer additions.