Bharti Airtel Limited has announced its consolidated results for the quarter ended (QE) December 2021. The consolidated revenues for Q3’ FY’22 stood at Rs 298.67 billion, witnessing a growth of 18.3 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) on a comparable basis and 12.6 per cent Y-o-Y on a reported basis. The consolidated mobile data traffic is reported at 11,014 PBs in the third quarter with a healthy Y-o-Y growth of 34.5 per cent. Meanwhile, consolidated net income (after exceptional items) stood at Rs 8.30 billion.

Airtel’s India business posted quarterly revenues of Rs 209.13 billion, higher by 17.9 per cent Y-o-Y on comparable basis. In addition, India business reported its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Rs 104.07 billion, crossing 100 billion milestone. The EBITDA margin stood at 49.8 per cent, up 458 bps Y-o-Y. Meanwhile, India EBIT stood at Rs 33.20 billion with EBIT margin at 15.9 per cent witnessing an expansion of 313 bps Y-o-Y. Also the capital expenditure (capex) spend for the quarter is reported at Rs 46.54 billion.

Further, the mobile revenues in India grew by 19.1 per cent Y-o-Y on comparable basis on account of upside in average revenue per user (ARPU) led by pricing intervention and continued momentum in 4G customer addition. ARPU for the quarter came in at Rs 163 as compared to Rs 146 reported in Q3 a year ago, on comparable basis.

Meanwhile, the company continues to garner strong share of the 4G customers in the market. 4G data customers increased by 18.1 per cent Y-o-Y to 195.5 million. Besides, the company has added 29.9 million 4G customers to its network over last year. ARPU continues to be the best in industry, average data usage per data customer at 18.3 GBs per month and voice usage per customer at 1,061 minutes per month.

Homes business segment continues to demonstrate strong revenue growth of 40.4 per cent Y-o-Y with customer net additions of approximately 341,000 during the quarter to reach to a total base of 4.16 million. The company is now live in 586 cities through local cable operator (LCO) partnership model with overall operations in 672 cities.

Meanwhile, Airtel Business continues to accelerate its momentum with 13.4 per cent Y-o-Y growth, driven by rapidly increasing demand for data, connectivity related solutions and Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS). Nxtra by Airtel’s launched its third large data centre in Chennai. It now operates the largest network of data centres in India with 11 hyperscale and 120 edge data centres. Revenue of Digital TV remained stable and continued to perpetuate its standing with 18.1 million customer base at the end of quarter.

Commenting on the results, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India and South Asia, said, “We have delivered another quarter of sustained performance across all our business segments. Overall sequential revenue growth was at 5.4 per cent and EBITDA margins came in at 49.9 per cent. The recent tariff revision for mobile services has gone down well and we are exiting the quarter with an industry leading ARPU of Rs 163. The full impact of the revised mobile tariffs, however, will be visible in the fourth quarter. Our Enterprise, Homes and Africa business continue to deliver strongly, with steady increase in contribution to the overall mix of the portfolio. Our balance sheet is robust and we are now generating healthy free cash flows. This has enabled us to recently prepay some of our spectrum liabilities to the government thereby reducing the interest burden. Google’s recent investment is a strong validation of Airtel’s role in being a leading pioneer of India’s digital revolution. Our emerging digital services portfolio across Airtel IQ, AdTech, digital market place, Nxtra and digital banking positions us well to build an Airtel of the future.”

 

 

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