The country’s second-largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel (Airtel), reported a consolidated net profit of ₹1,612 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, a marginal rise year-on-year (YoY) as compared with ₹1,607 crore in the same period last year.
However, total revenue rose by 14 per cent YoY to ₹37,440 crore during the quarter, compared with ₹32,805 crore in the corresponding period in the last financial year.
Additions in Postpaid
Airtel said it recorded the highest-ever postpaid net addition of 0.8 million during the quarter under review, adding that the company spent ₹10,486 crore as capex.
“We have delivered yet another quarter of strong and competitive growth across all our businesses. Our consolidated revenue grew sequentially by 4.0 per cent, and EBITDA margin expanded to 52.7 per cent, underscoring the simplicity and execution of our strategy. We exit the quarter with an industry-leading ARPU (average revenue per user) of ₹200 (compared with ₹183 in Q1 last year),” Gopal Vittal, Managing Director, Airtel, said.
“Homes, enterprises, and digital businesses continue to exhibit strong growth momentum, reflecting the resilience and strength of the overall portfolio,” he said.
Revenue up 12%
India revenue for the April-June quarter grew by 12 per cent YoY to ₹26,375 crore, and mobile revenue grew by 12.4 per cent YoY on account of improved realisation as well as strong 4G customer additions during the year, the company said.
It said the ARPU increased on the back of a sustained focus on acquiring quality customers and improved realisations on account of premiumisation.
“We remain at the forefront of transformative projects, as we became the first service provider to democratise access to fast 5G speeds for customers travelling on India’s first water metro service in Kochi. The company also launched unlimited 5G for its customers with a view to encourage them to experience the power of the Airtel 5G network,” it said.
With the highest-ever net additions during the quarter, the company strengthened its leadership position in the postpaid segment, thereby reaching a customer base of 40.4 million (including IoT). Airtel’s business became India’s first enterprise to power over 20 million connected devices, it added.
“We continue to garner a strong share of 4G customers in the market and added 24.5 million 4G data customers to our network over last year, an increase of 11.9 per cent YoY. We continue to deliver industry-leading ARPU along with growing average data usage per data customer at 21.1 GB/month,” Airtel said, adding that the company rolled out around 9,200 towers in the quarter to further strengthen its network coverage.
Shares of Airtel closed at ₹871.95 apiece on the BSE on Thursday, down 0.66 per cent from the previous close.