Bharti Airtel Q2 results: Profit surges 89% to Rs 2,145 crore, customer base tops 50-crore mark

Bharti Airtel on Monday reported an 89.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,145.20 crore compared with Rs 1,134 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter rose 21.9 per cent YoY to Rs 34,526.80 crore compared with Rs 28,326.40 crore in the same quarter last year. In a filing to BSE, the telecom operator said the revenue growth was driven by strong and consistent performance delivery across its portfolio.  The global customer base crossed the 50 crore level during the quarter, Bharti Airtel said. 

Ebitda for the quarter came in at Rs 17,721.20 crore, up 26 per cent YoY. Ebitda margin for the quarter stood at 51.3 per cent, up 18 basis points over 49.5 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter rose to Rs 190 in the quarter compared with Rs 153 in the same quarter last year.

“We have delivered yet another quarter with competitive revenue growth and improved margins. Our consolidated revenue grew sequentially by 5.3 per cent and Ebitda margin expanded to 51.3 per cent. The consistency of our execution is driven by the strength and resilience of our portfolio. Our B2B and Homes business continued their strong growth momentum while Mobile ARPU expanded to 190 on the back of premiumisation and deep customer understanding," said MD and CEO for India & South Asia, Gopal Vittal.

Vittal said his company was rolling out 5G and was confident that Airtel 5G Plus would deliver the best experience in India.

"I do believe that 5G technology has the potential of bringing tremendous innovation into India. At the same time, we remain concerned about the low ROCE that our business delivers due to pricing that is the lowest in the world. Given the large investments required to drive digital adoption in India we believe there is a need for tariff correction.”

The telecom opeator said it had 50.10 crore customers as of September 30, up 4.8 per cent over 47.80 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Total minutes of usage on the network during the quarter were 1,18,000 crore, representing a growth of 5.1 per cent over year-ago's 1,12,300 crore.

Mobile Data traffic grew 20.9 per cent to 13,232 PBs during the quarter compared with 10,946 PBs in the corresponding quarter last year.

In case of Africa business, the company had an aggregate customer base of 13.47 crore compared with 12.27 crore in the year-ago quarter, up 9.7 per cent YoY. Total minutes on network during the quarter registered a growth of 16.2 per cent to 109 billion compared with 93.8 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.

Africa data customers during the quarter rose 47 lakh to 4.86 crore compared with 4.39 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Africa data customers represented 36.1 per cent of the Bharti's total customer base compared with 35.8 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.

Also Read: Airtel's Sunil Mittal has an advice for India Inc: Be prepared for global innovation to shift to India