Bharti Airtel on October 31 said its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended September was Rs 1,340.7 crore, down 37.50 percent from Rs 2,145.2 crore in the same quarter last year.
The telecom services provider said its revenue from operations stood at Rs 37,043.8 crore against Rs 34,526.8 crore in the corresponding quarter, last fiscal, registering a growth of 7.28 percent. The numbers missed the expectations. The company said revenue growth was impacted due to Nigerian Naira devaluation flow-through in current quarter.
According to a poll of brokerages, conducted by Moneycontrol, Bharti Airtel was expected to see revenues of Rs 38,259 crore for the quarter ended September, higher by 10.8 percent.
EBITDA of the company came in at Rs 19,665 crore, rising 10.96 percent from Rs 17,721.2 crore, according to company release. EBITDA margin contracted 20 basis points to 53.1 percent. The EBITDA was expected to come in at Rs 19,956.6 crore growing 13.4 percent year-on-year, according to analyst estimates.
On consolidated basis, which includes its operations in 17 countries, total minutes of usage on the network during the quarter were 1,281 billion, representing a growth of 8.5 percent as compared to 1,180 billion in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile Data traffic grew 20.7 percent to 15,966 petabytes (PBs; 1 PB = 1,000 terabytes) during the quarter as compared to 13,232 PBs in the corresponding quarter last year.
Consolidated net debt excluding lease obligations for the company stands at 1,47,459.3 crore as on September 30, 2023 compared to Rs 1,57,277.6 crore as on September 30, 2022. Consolidated net debt for the company including the impact of leases stands at Rs 2,07,015.8 crore.
India operations
India revenues, including mobile, home services and digital TV services segments, for the quarter stood at Rs 26,994,7 crore, up 10.9 percent vis-à-vis Rs 24,333.3 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
Mobile revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 20,952.1 crore, up by 11 percent YoY compared. EBITDA for the quarter was Rs 11,503.9 crore as compared to Rs 9,873.6 crore YoY. EBITDA margin was 54.9 percent, improving by 260 basis points YoY.
Also read: Airtel Africa Q2 net profit falls 14% to $115 million, revenue drops 5%
For its Indian operations, average revenue per user (ARPU) per month improved to Rs 203, up 1.5 percent quarter on quarter. Analysts expected ARPU to rise between 1.6 percent to 2.2 percent quarter-on-quarter.
The company’s mobile customer count increased 4.4 percent to 34.23 crore. Voice traffic grew 8 percent YoY while data traffic zoomed 19.6 percent YoY during the quarter.
Penalty
In a separate notification, Bharti Airtel said on October 30, the Department of Telecommunications, Uttar Pradesh East LSA (DoT), has levied a penalty of Rs 1.72 lakh on the company on alleged violation of terms and conditions with respect to subscriber verification norms under the License Agreement.
This step has been taken pursuant to Sample CAF Audit conducted by DoT for September, 2023.
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