Bharti Airtel Q2 Results: Net profit soars 168% YoY to Rs 3,593 crore, ARPU rises to Rs 233

Bharti Airtel on Monday reported a 168% jump in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended September 2024 to Rs 3,593 crore as against Rs 1,341 crore posted in the year-ago period. ARPU for the quarter stood at Rs 233 as compared to Rs 203 in Q2FY24. This translates into a 15% YoY jump in the average revenue per user.

The company's revenue from operations during the quarter stood at Rs 41,473 crore, up 12% over Rs 37,044 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

Its consolidated net income (before exceptional items) stood at Rs 3,911 crore, up by 32.2% YoY.

The second-largest telecom operator by way of subscriber base reported a revenue uptick of 7.7% on a QoQ basis, driven by strong momentum in India and sustained constant currency growth in Africa.

The India business posted quarterly revenues of Rs 31,561 crore, up 17% YoY and 8.7% QoQ, backed by improved realisations in the mobile segment and sustained momentum in Homes and Airtel Business.

Mobile services India revenues were up 18.5% YoY, led by tariff repair, strong smartphone data customer additions and underlying mix improvement. As for the Airtel Business revenues, an uptick of 10.7% YoY was seen, led by growth in the domestic portfolio.

Consolidated EBITDA was reported at Rs 22,021 crore while the EBITDA margin stood at 53.1%. The India business posted EBITDA of Rs 17,295 crore while the EBITDA margin at 54.8%, up 86 bps YoY.

Consolidated EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) stood at Rs 10,996 crore while EBIT margin was reported at 26.5%, a decline of 29 bps YoY. The India business EBIT was Rs 7,894 crore while the EBIT margin was at 25%, an increase of 97 bps YoY.

The overall customer base on a consolidated basis stood at 563 million across 15 countries. Capex for the quarter stood at Rs 7,675 crore.

In a statement, MD Gopal Vittal lauded the company's quarterly results calling it a "solid performance". "Africa maintained strong revenue growth momentum as well with 7.7% constant currency growth. The flow thru of tariff repair is in line with our expectation on ARPU increase and SIM consolidation. We reported an industry leading ARPU of Rs 233. Our focus on winning quality customers and driving premiumisation has helped us add 4.2 million smartphone customers," Vittal said.

"We continue to expand our Wifi coverage with FWA offerings to over 2,000 cities. We continue to invest in our digital businesses to diversify portfolio strength and drive long-term growth. Airtel also continues to invest in a future-ready digital network to deliver brilliant customer experience - we launched India's first AI-powered, network-based spam detection solution to solve the endemic problem of spam calls and messages. Our 5G network has once again received validation from Open signal – Airtel was awarded all the five awards on 5G network experience," the MD said.

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