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Bharti Airtel Gains 4%, Management Bullish on Business Outlook

Shares in Bharti Airtel were up over 4 per cent to Rs 408.90 on Wednesday. Bharti Airtel has outperformed the benchmark Nifty in last one week as it gained over 10 per cent in the period as against 2.4 per cent gain in Nifty.

Global brokerage Macquarie's analysts have meet Bharti management. Bharti's management believes data is going to be a key driver of its revenues in coming days. Bharti told Macquarie's analysts that data contribution to its India revenue has increased three times in last nine quarters.

Bharti believes data contribution is likely to be robust in coming days because of increased data adoption. As per research firm IDC, 29 per cent of new mobile shipments into India are now smart-phones against 10 per cent in first quarter of CY2013.

Macquarie believes data to contribute 20 per cent to Bharti's India mobile revenue and strong growth in data will also help margins. Incremental cost of infrastructure and services for data is significantly lower, added Macquarie.

Bharti also told analysts that its Africa business is likely to improve soon. Bharti's management expects its Africa margins to inch up from current levels. Data business in Africa continues to grow at a robust pace. Its data volumes grew over 100 per cent in the first quarter of FY 2015.

Macquarie says Bharti may also consider divesting its Africa Tower assets.

As of 11.50 a.m. shares in Bharti were up 3.77 per cent at Rs 406.35 outperforming the Nifty which was up 0.30 per cent.