Mumbai: A BusinessWeek survey has ranked telecom service provider Bharti Airtel 13th among the best performing 50 companies in Asia, ahead of Reliance Industries and Infosys.

The Asia BusinessWeek 50 annual survey of best companies across all sectors in Asia has ranked Bharti ahead of Reliance Industries, ranked 17th and Infosys, ranked 23rd, a company release said.

Bharti's plans to invest $2 billion on network expansion and marketing and reach out to underserved markets in the rural areas was a step towards Mittal's broader ambition to be the most admired brand in India, the release added, quoting BusinessWeek.

"Investors already like what they see. Bharti Airtel delivered 30 per cent total shareholder returns in 2005 and a head-turning 493 per cent over the last three years," the release quoted BusinessWeek as saying.

Bharti Airtel CMD Sunil Mittal said this reflected the company's relentless pursuit to create a world-class organisation providing the best in world-class services.

Bharti Airtel Limited, a part of Bharti Enterprises, is India's leading provider of telecommunications services. Bharti Airtel provides mobile services, broadband and basic telephone services as also enterprise services, all under the Airtel brand.

Bharti Airtel had reported a 53 per cent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenues at Rs 3,856 crore and a 60 per cent rise in EBITDA at Rs 1,502 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006. Cash profit from operations grew 44 per cent at Rs 1,333 crore over the corresponding quarter last year. Net profit during the quarter ended June 30, 2006 grew 48 per cent to Rs 755 crore from the corresponding quarter of last year.

Bharti had also reported an 86 per cent rise in customer base, at over 24.5 million as of June 30, 2006, from the same period last year.