Bharti Airtel Q3 results: Net profit surges 505% to Rs 14,781 crore on one-time gain; ARPU rises to Rs 245

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Telecom major Bharti Airtel on February 6 reported a 505% jump in net profit at Rs 14,781 crore for the quarter that ended December 31, 2024, thus beating estimates, on account of a one-time gain incurred by the consolidation of a majority stake in Indus Towers. It reported a net profit of Rs 2,442 crore in the year-ago period.

The company recorded a one-time gain of Rs 7,546 crore during the reporting quarter.

The firm's revenue rose 19% to Rs 45,129 crore in Q3FY25 as against Rs 37,900 in Q3FY24.

A Moneycontrol poll of seven brokerage firms had estimated Bharti Airtel's consolidated net profit to double year-on-year to Rs 5,039 crore, with revenue expected to rise nearly 16 percent to Rs 43,874 crore. A poll of six brokerages had projected the company's EBITDA margin at 54 percent.

On February 6, Bharti Airtel's shares on BSE closed 2.32% lower at Rs 1,622 apiece.

India revenues for Q3’25 at Rs 34,654 crore increased by 24.6% YoY, and 9.8% QoQ. Mobile revenues grew 21.4% YoY, led by the residual impact of tariff flow through and focus to premiumize the portfolio with quality customers.

ARPU for the quarter stood at Rs 245 compared to Rs 208 in Q3’24.

Mobile data consumption jumped 23.2% YoY, while consumption per customer stood at 24.5 GB per month.

Airtel added 0.6 million postpaid customers in Q3’25, taking its customer base to 25.3 million. Its market share in the smartphone segment saw continued improvement with an addition of 25.2 million, an increase of 10.3% YoY.

Airtel's overall India customer base grew 1.8% sequentially and 4.2% on year to 414 million.

Airtel's overall customer base grew 4.7%  at 577 million across 15 countries.

“We delivered another consistent quarter with consolidated revenue of Rs 45,129 crore. Indus Towers consolidation is effective this quarter. India revenue (excluding Indus) grew by 4.8% sequentially. Africa maintained strong constant currency sequential growth trajectory of 5.6%. India mobile delivered strong performance led by residual flow-through of tariff repair and underlying levers of premiumisation," said Gopal Vittal, Vice-Chairman and MD.

"Our balance sheet remains solid, supported by robust cash generation, prudent capital allocation and continued deleveraging. We prepaid another tranche of Rs 3,626 crore of high-cost spectrum dues during the quarter. At the same time, we believe the industry further tariff repair to ensure sustained investments and long-term value creation," he added.

Homes business sustained growth momentum with a revenue growth of 18.7% YoY, driven by strong customer additions. During the quarter, Airtel accelerated our FWA expansion, which led to a strong uptick in customer additions of 674 K customers to reach a total base of 9.2 million.

"We continue to expand our home-pass network at accelerated pace of over 1.8 Mn home passes in the quarter," Airtel said.

Airtel Business delivered revenue growth of 8.7% YoY despite of headwinds in the global segment primarily arising out of pressures on wholesale data and messaging. Domestic business saw healthy growth, and emerging digital offerings saw strong traction.

Digital TV posted revenue of Rs 761 crore, down 2.9% YoY, with a customer base of 15.8 million.