Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a 25% sequential decline in consolidated net profit during the January-March quarter at Rs 11,022 crore. However, it beat Bloomberg’s estimate of Rs 6,509 crore, primarily due to a significant exceptional gain. This included a tax benefit of Rs 5,913 crore arising from the recognition of previously unrecognised deferred tax assets. As a result, on a year-on-year basis net profit was up 432%. Excluding exceptional items, net profit stood at Rs 5,222 crore, down from Rs 7,545 crore in the preceding quarter, which too had been buoyed by similar one-time gains.
Consolidated revenue during the quarter stood at R 47,876 crore, up 6.1% quarter-on-quarter and 15.3% year-on-year. However, this fell slightly short of Bloomberg’s revenue estimate of Rs 48,503 crore.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) rose 9.8% sequentially to Rs 27,009 crore and 39.5% on a year-on-year basis. The Ebitda margin improved by two percentage points to 57.2%, compared to 55.1% in the previous quarter.
India operations continued to be the main driver of revenue, contributing Rs 36,735 crore, up 6% sequentially and 20.6% year-on-year. Revenue from India mobile services rose 1.32% quarter-on-quarter and 21% year-on-year to Rs 26,618 crore. However, the average revenue per user (Arpu) remained unchanged at Rs 245 after several quarters of growth, as the impact of the July 2024 tariff hikes began to taper off.
“India mobile business grew by 1.3% sequentially, despite having 2 less days in the quarter. Growth was driven by premiumisation. We added 6.6 million smartphone users and maintained an industry-leading Arpu of Rs 245,” Gopal Vittal, vice-chairman and MD of Bharti Airtel said.
The total mobile subscriber base increased to 361.6 million, up from 356.6 million in Q3, while monthly churn declined to 2.3% from 2.5%.
The company added 6.6 million 4G/5G users during the quarter, taking the total to 276.1 million. Bharti continues to trail Reliance Jio in data consumption, with average usage per customer per month at 25.1 GB, compared to Jio’s 33.6 GB. Total data usage on Airtel’s network grew 4.5% quarter-on-quarter to 21.1 billion GB.
In terms of voice consumption, Airtel led the industry with an average of 1,160 minutes per user per month, up from 1,135 minutes in Q3, ahead of Jio’s 1,013 minutes. The company also added 0.6 million postpaid users, taking the total to 25.2 million.
The enterprise business segment saw a slight dip to Rs 5,646 crore. Vittal noted that Airtel is undergoing a comprehensive retooling of its enterprise offerings, investing more in digital services such as cloud, IoT, and security, while phasing out low-margin segments like wholesale voice. This shift may weigh on revenue in the short term but is expected to have minimal impact on margins.
Revenue from the home services segment grew 5.4% to Rs 1,509 crore. Airtel continued to expand its home broadband and fixed wireless access (FWA) services, adding 674,000 subscribers during the quarter and bringing the total base to 8.6 million.