Bharti Airtel on Monday reported its third quarter profit for the financial year 2023-24 at Rs 2442.20 crore, up 53.8 per cent in comparison to Rs 1588.20 crore during the corresponding quarter of FY23. It posted revenue from operations at Rs 37,899.50 crore, up 5.9 per cent as against Rs 35,804.40 crore during the third quarter of FY23. Consolidated revenue growth was partially impacted by devaluation of African currencies during the period. The company EBITDA stood at Rs 20,044 crore, up 1.9 per cent on-year. The company’s average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to Rs 208 during the quarter as compared to Rs 193 in Q3FY23 driven by consistent strategy of acquiring high value customers and improved realizations.
Gopal Vittal, MD, said, “We have delivered yet another quarter of consistent and competitive growth across all our businesses. Revenue from India business sustained its momentum and grew sequentially by 3.0 per cent, while the consolidated revenue was impacted by the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira and Malawian Kwacha. The quarter witnessed a strong growth trajectory for the postpaid and Homes business, while our DTH business added 388k net adds – the highest in the last 12 quarters. We remain on course with our strategy of premiumization that helped us add 7.4 million 4G/5G customers and exit the quarter with an industry leading ARPU of Rs 208. Even at this ARPU, our return on capital employed however, continues to be low at 9.4 per cent. To ensure industry health, tariff repair is extremely critical.”
Bharti Airtel’s Q3 performance across businesses
Bharti Airtel’s India revenue for Q3FY24 was reported at Rs 27,811 crore, up 11.4 per cent YoY. Mobile revenues, it said, grew by 11.8 per cent YoY on account of improved realisation and strong 4G/5G customer additions during the year.
“We further strengthened our leadership position in the Postpaid segment with net adds of 0.9 Mn (excluding IoT). In Q3FY24, we reached a customer base of 48.3 Mn (including IoT). We continue to garner strong market share of 4G/5G customers and added 28.2 Mn 4G/5G data customers to our network over the last year, an increase of 13.0 per cent YoY. We continue to deliver industry leading ARPU along with growing average data usage per data customer at 22.0 GBs/month,” it said in a statement.
Bharti Airtel rolled out ~12.3k towers in the quarter to strengthen its network coverage and provide seamless connectivity. In the last 12 months, it rolled out ~45k towers to ensure coverage and connectivity in rural as well as urban areas.
Homes business, meanwhile, maintained its growth trajectory and delivered a revenue growth of 23.0 per cent YoY, driven by the company’s strategy to harness the growing demand of high-speed and reliable broadband in India. “Our focus on digitization and acquiring high value customers led to 359 K customer additions in the quarter to reach a total base of 7.3 Mn. We continue to accelerate our rollouts on the back of innovative asset light local cable operator partnership model. Our homes business is now live in 1267 cities,” it said.
Airtel Business maintained its organic revenue growth of 8.7 per cent YoY by leveraging the converged portfolio of Airtel and harvesting the increasing demand for data and core connectivity related solutions. The emerging digital portfolio is also yielding strong results. The company also launched Airtel Advantage, a unified platform offering global interconnect solutions. “The automated one-stop destination is the first such platform by an Indian telecom carrier. Offering International Voice, A2P, P2A, P2P SMS, Direct Inward Dialing (DID) and International Toll Free Service (ITFS), Airtel Advantage will enable carrier partners globally to seamlessly address their connectivity needs in a few clicks,” it said.
Digital TV, meanwhile, continues to consolidate its market position with 16.1 Mn customer base at the end of quarter. “We have more than 210 Mn MAUs across our key digital assets – Thanks, Xstream and Wynk. Our digital services span both across B2B and B2C and include Ads, Cpaas, Airtel IQ, IoT, Cloud, SD-WAN and Airtel Finance. Airtel Xtream play crossed the five million paid customers in October and continues to be the fastest growing OTT aggregator in the country,” it stated.
In January FY24, Bharti Airtel acquired 97.1 per cent stake in Beetel teletech along with its 49 per cent stake in Dixon electro appliances private limited.
Furthermore, the company’s Africa business reported revenue (in constant currency) up 21.0 per cent YoY. EBITDA margin was at 49.4 per cent, up 89 bps YoY. Customer base, it added, stands at 151 million with capex for the quarter at Rs 1515 crore.
