India's 2nd-largest cell phone maker suffers

Profits down 37 per cent at Reliance Communications in first quarter

MUMBAI - Reliance Communications Ltd, India's second-largest mobile-phone carrier, said first-quarter profit fell 37 percent, more than analysts expected, because of foreign-exchanges losses and higher interest costs.

Net income declined to 1.57 billion rupees ($34 million) in the three months that ended in June from 2.5 billion rupees a year earlier, the Mumbai-based company said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Saturday. Profit compared with the 1.92 billion-rupee median of 18 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.