Rank 85: Bharti Mobitel: In News, but...

Fiscal 2001-02 was bad for this erstwhile Modi Group company, as the
estimated revenue rose by a mere 3.8 percent to reach Rs 80 crore in FY 2001-02,
up from a revised estimate of Rs 77 crore in 2000-01. This made Bharti Mobitel
the slowest growing, fully-operational, mobile company in India in 2001-02. It
also lost its leadership position in terms of the number of subscribers, as its
subscriber base rose by a mere 13.5 percent, compared to the industry average of
about 80 percent, and its competitor’s three figure growth. This is the only
Bharti Group acquisition that has lost market share after getting acquired. Its
market share also fell to 38.16 percent from an almost 50 percent last year.

While the reasons for this slow progress may be partially due to Bharti’s
internal restructuring, it is also due to the fact that Hutchison acquired Usha
Martin Telekom, which became really aggressive and marketed very well.

Bharti Mobitel TURNOVER FACTSHEET CEO : Deepak Gulati Year of Start : 1995 Area of Operation : Cellular service Address : 118-119Park Street, Kolkata 700 016 Tel  : 245 4500-1 Web Site : www.airtelworld.com, www.bharti.com S W O T Strength  : The Bharti name Weakness : Inability to grow fast enough Opportunity : Leverage Bharti’s national network for innovative roaming  Threat  : More regionally concentrated Reliance coming in

In a low-ARPU market like Kolkata, the only way for the company to grow is by
hooking up subscribers, in which the company faltered. While it is difficult to
believe that Bharti will not fight back to win lost marketshare, the whole game
will be tougher with Reliance bagging the fourth operator license in the city,
thus giving it control over the entire eastern India.