Airtel Africa has announced its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. The profit after tax (PAT) stood at $ 31 million as compared to $ 151 million loss in the corresponding quarter of 2023. This has been impacted by exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses (net of tax) worth $ 80 million arising from depreciation in Nigerian naira during the quarter of the reporting period.
The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 23.3 per cent in reported quarter from $ 682 million to $ 523 million during the reporting period. The EBITDA margins declined from 49.5 per cent to 45.3 per cent due to a substantial increase in fuel prices across the markets and a lower contribution of Nigeria to the group after the naira devaluation. Further, revenue declined by 16.1 per cent in reported quarter from $ 1.37 billion to $ 1.15 billion for the same period.
Mobile services revenue declined by 19.4 per cent in reported quarter from $ 1,223 million to to $ 986 million. Meanwhile, the mobile money revenue grew by 10.1 per cent from $ 201 million to $ 222 million.
Mobile money subscriber base grew by 14.9 per cent from 34.3 million to 39.5 million. This was because of continued investment into distribution to support increased financial inclusion across markets. Furthermore, the total customer base grew by 8.6 per cent from 143.1 million to 155.4 million. Data average revenue per user (ARPU) declined by 27 per cent from $ 2.9 to $ 2.1.
Commenting on the announcement, Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer, Airtel Africa, said, “The continued revenue growth momentum once again reflects the resilient demand for our services, with sustained growth in our customer base and usage. Our superior execution enables us to capture these opportunities, whilst retaining our reputation as a cost leader across the industry. Having visited most of our operating companies (OpCos) since I joined Airtel Africa, I am encouraged by the scale of the opportunity available across our markets in both the global system for mobile communication (GSM) and mobile money business. A key priority for us is to look for new opportunities to further grow our business especially in the enterprise, fibre and data centre businesses across our footprint in Africa. We will build on the strong foundation established over many years to deliver on these new business opportunities. Most importantly, our emphasis is on significantly improving customer experience by simplifying customer journeys and providing best in class network experience to our customers, whilst remaining focused on driving efficiencies across the business. We have initiated a comprehensive cost optimisation programme across the group. We have already seen success in this project, with savings arising in network and distribution costs, and continued opportunities as contract renegotiations continue. We expect sustainable savings to continue as the year progresses. A strong capital structure is critical to enabling these ambitions and future proofing our ambitious growth targets. During the quarter, we fully repaid the outstanding debt due at the HoldCo and we remain committed to further reduce foreign currency exposure across the group to limit the impact of currency devaluation on our business. The growth opportunity across our markets remains compelling and we continue to focus on margin improvement as indicated in our FY24 results.”
