Bharti Airtel Ltd posted a surprise first-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by tax gains in the period.

Profit fell 73.5 percent to Rs 9.73 crore for the quarter ended June 30, as a pricing war that has upended the telecoms sector continued to weigh on the mobile carrier.

The company had reported a profit of Rs 370 crore a year earlier.

Revenue fell about nine percent to Rs 20,080 crore, the company said in a statement.

On the operational front, EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) dropped 3 percent sequentially to Rs 6,725.8 crore and margin contracted by 179 basis points to 33.5 percent.

First Published:Jul 26, 2018 5:25 PM IST