Airtel Africa Q2 profit rises 16% to $254 million

Airtel Africa on Friday reported a 15.9% year-on-year rise in quarterly net profit to $254 million, buoyed by higher operating profit and growth in data and mobile money revenues.

The performance helped offset higher finance costs and inflationary pressure from rising fuel prices.

The company's September-quarter revenue rose 25.7% in reported currency to $1.97 billion, while growth in constant currency stood at 20.6%. The difference was partly driven by appreciation in currencies such as the Nigerian naira and Zambian kwacha.


Operating profit increased 28.5% to $659 million while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) rose 29.4% to $993 million. The underlying Ebitda margin expanded 144 basis points year-on-year to 50.4%, its highest level, supported by operating leverage and cost-efficiency measures.

"Despite rising fuel costs continuing to exert inflationary pressure on our cost base, we delivered a record underlying Ebitda margin of 50.4% in Q2'27 through a combination of operational discipline, ongoing cost efficiency programmes and continued scale benefits," Sunil Taldar, CEO of Airtel Africa, said.

The company's customer base expanded 11.6% year-on-year to 193.9 million, while its data customer base grew 15% to 89.9 million. The company's average revenue per user (ARPU), a key performance metric, rose 12.2% to $3.4 in reported currency and 7.6% in constant currency.

Data revenue during the quarter grew 34.2% in reported currency to $821 million, with constant currency growth of 28.7%. The data customer base expanded 15% year-on-year to 89.9 million. Smartphone penetration increased to 51.6%, while smartphone data usage per customer rose to 13.3 GB per month from 10.1 GB in the year-ago period.