Bharti Airtel has announced its audited consolidated results for the fourth quarter (Q4) ended March 31, 2022. The revenues for Q4 FY’22 stood at Rs 225 billion, witnessing an increase of 22.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y). Also, during the quarter, mobile revenues grew by 25.1 per cent Y-o-Y on account of increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) led by healthy flow through of tariff revision and strong 4G customer additions during the year. ARPU for the quarter came in at Rs 178 as compared to Rs 145 in Q4’21.
The company continued to gain strong share of the 4G customers in the market and surpassed 200 million mark towards the end of Q4 FY’22. The company has added 21.5 million 4G customers to its network over last year, an increase by 12.0 per cent Y-o-Y.
Besides, the telco also rolled out additional 7,000 towers in the quarter to provide ubiquitous connectivity and differentiated network experience. Airtel now has over 40 million customers using our Vo-Wi-Fi services.
Meanwhile, homes business segment continues its strong momentum with revenue growth of 45.8 per cent Y-o-Y and customer net additions of approximately 323,000 during the quarter to reach to a total base of 4.5 million. Local cable operator (LCO) partnership model continues to play a pivotal role in accelerated expansion, and the operator is now live in 761 cities through this model with overall operations in 847 cities.
The digital services offerings of Airtel continued to remain robust with a healthy engaged customer base of over 189 million MAUs across its key digital assets – Thanks, Wynk, Xstream. During the quarter, Airtel Payments Bank continue to expand its footing with a strong total customer base of over 129 million and highly engaged monthly transacting users (MTU) base of approximately 37 million.
Additionally, the consolidated earning before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) witnessed an increase of 27.1 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 159.98 billion in Q4 FY’22. This led to an improvement in EBITDA margin from 48.9 per cent in Q4 FY’21 to 50.8 per cent in Q4 FY’22 exhibiting company’s continued focus on operational efficiencies. Incremental EBITDA margins across businesses remained healthy, with India mobile services EBITDA improving from 47.5 per cent in Q4’21 to 50.6 per cent in Q4’22. Consolidated EBIT increased by 44.9 per cent YoY to Rs 7,315 crore.
The net income for the quarter stands at Rs 20.08 billion. Meanwhile, the net debt-EBITDA ratio (annualised) and including the impact of leases as on March 31, 2022 is at 2.51 times as compared to 2.95 times as on March 31, 2021. The company paid additional Rs 88.15 billion towards part prepayment of deferred liabilities for spectrum acquired in 2015.
Commenting on the results, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India and South Asia, said, “This has been another quarter to cap a full year of consistent and competitive performance across our portfolio. Our consolidated revenues for the quarter grew by 5.5 per cent and EBITDA margins expanded to 50.8 per cent, underscoring our focus on all round delivery. The mobile business revenues were up 9.5 per cent as we saw the full flow through of tariff increase. Airtel continues to have the highest ARPU at Rs 178. Our Homes and enterprise business continue to exhibit very strong growth momentum, reflecting the resilience of our overall portfolio. Our strong balance sheet and cash flows have enabled us to further repay some of our spectrum liabilities ahead of schedule and improve our leverage. We continue to remain optimistic about the opportunities in the coming years and believe we are well poised as a company for three reasons. First, our ability to execute consistently to a simple strategy of winning with quality customers and delivering the best experience to them. Second, our future proofed business model with massive investments in both infrastructure and digital capabilities. Finally, our financial prudence backed by our strong governance focus.”
