Bharti Airtel has posted a 55% fall in its Q3 profit compared to a year ago. This was due to the effect on its voice and data businesses due to Reliance Jio Infocomm’s free services which resulted in a full-blown rate war.
The net income for the three months of 504 Rs Crore ($108 million), a fall of 55% compared to the same period last year, is said to be the lowest in fours years. Revenue also fell by 3% Y-o-Y even though EBITDA grew by 1.1% for the same period.
There was however a growth in the company’s customer base by 0.4%
Bharti Airtel’s Africa operations continued on its loss making streak as its net loss widened to $93 million in the third quarter to December from $74 million a year ago. This was dragged down by a mix of finance costs, taxes, depreciation & amortisation (D&A) charges and devaluation of the Nigerian currency. But with all these, the underlying revenue accelerated to 6.0%Y-o-Y, the highest in last 9 quarters.
Mr. Raghunath Mandava, MD and CEO, Africa, said that Airtel’s efforts to improve the quality of customer acquisitions resulted in reduction in customer churn to 4.9% from 6.0%.
“Data consumption and revenues have grown by 91.0% & 24.0% Y-o-Y respectively, led by stronger data networks.”
“Our strong focus on cost control has led to a significant underlying EBITDA margin expansion of 4.9% Y-o-Y, which now stands at 24.5%. Africa is now generating positive free cash and is PBT positive in constant currency”
Overall Africa average revenue per user (ARPU) increased 1 % on-year to $3.9 in absolute terms, but was a down 0.5% sequentially.
Chairman Sunil Mittal had said, in an interview at the recently concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, that the company was considering mergers or stake sales at some of its Africa operations as it looks to cut debt and make its biggest overseas acquisition profitable. He said that the moves would pare the size of operations in the continent and could be completed within a year. He indicated that some of Bharti’s businesses in 15 African nations would be affected. The company sold its Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso operations last year to Orange.
