Airtel Africa has released its financial results for the fourth quarter (Q4) FY’2021-22. The operator reported a net profit of $240 million during the quarter, registering a whopping 56 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) spike, and 33 per cent increase sequentially, due to tighter cost controls, despite sequential fall in the customer additions and average revenue per user (ARPU). Meanwhile, the reported revenue grew by 20.6 per cent for the year, to $4,714 million, and 17.8 per cent for Q4. Also, constant currency underlying revenue grew 23.3 per cent for the year and 19.1 per cent in Q4.
The earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at $2,311 million, witnessing a growth of 29.0 per cent in reported currency. Meanwhile, the EBITDA margin for the operator improved 294 points.
Further, Airtel’s Africa business registered 37.2 per cent growth in operating profit to $1,535 million. Profit after tax for the operator stood at $755 million, up by 82.0 per cent. The basic earning per share (EPS) of 16.8 cents was recorded, witnessing growth of 86.5 per cent. Operating free cash flow stood at $1,655 million, up by 40.5 per cent, with net cash generated from operating activities up 20.7 per cent to $2,011 million.
The Africa unit’s net finance costs in the March quarter increased 8 per cent Y-o-Y but declined 8.2 per cent sequentially, to $112 million. Airtel Africa added that an increase in tax charges of $187 million was due to higher operating profits, and withholding tax on dividends by subsidiaries. The company’s net debt fell 3.5 per cent sequentially to $2.941 billion, in the quarter ended March 2022. Moreover, as per Airtel Africa, it has strengthened its balance sheet through both deleveraging and reducing its US dollar debt expense. The company improved its leverage ratio to 1.3x net debt to underlying EBITDA in the quarter ended March.
Airtel’s Africa unit’s customer base across 14 markets in the continent rose nearly 9 per cent on year and 2 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q), to 128.4 million, while monthly churn increased marginally to 4.3 per cent. However, the Africa unit’s ARPU fell 3 per cent sequentially to $3.2. However, the data revenue grew nearly 28 per cent Y-o-Y and around 1.3 per cent sequentially to $398 million while voice revenue rose nearly 14per cent Y-o-Y and under 2 per cent sequentially to $615 million in the March quarter. Additionally, the data customer base at the end of March, FY22 stood at 46.7 million, registering a 3.6 per cent sequential growth and over 15 per cent annual growth.
