Country’s second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Monday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹2,442 crore for the third quarter ended December 31 – up 53.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) compared with ₹1,588 crore in the corresponding period of the last financial year.
Consolidated total revenue for the quarter under review also grew by 5.8 per cent to ₹37,900 crore (₹35,804 crore).
India business posted a quarterly revenue of ₹27,811 crore – up 11.4 per cent backed by strong and consistent performance across the portfolio. Mobile services in India revenues were up 11.8 per cent, led by strong 4G/ 5G customer additions and increase in average revenue per user (ARPU), the company said.
“We have delivered yet another quarter of consistent and competitive growth across all our businesses. Revenue from India business sustained its momentum and grew sequentially by three per cent, while the consolidated revenue was impacted by the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira and Malawian Kwacha,” Gopal Vittal, Managing Director, Airtel, said.
The quarter witnessed a strong growth trajectory for the postpaid and Homes business, while DTH business added 3,88,000 net adds – the highest in the last 12 quarters, he said.
“We remain on course with our strategy of premiumisation that helped us add 7.4 million 4G/5G customers and exit the quarter with an industry leading ARPU of ₹208. Even at this ARPU, our return on capital employed however, continues to be low at 9.4 per cent. To ensure industry health, tariff repair is extremely critical,” Vittal added.
Customer additions
The company further strengthened its leadership position in postpaid segment with net addition of 0.9 million (excluding IoT) and reached a customer base of 48.3 million (including IoT) during the quarter. It continues to garner strong market share of 4G/5G customers and added 28.2 million 4G/5G data customers to our network over the last year, an increase of 13 per cent YoY, Airtel said.
Average data usage per data customer was recorded at 22 Gbs per month, it said adding that it rolled out around 12,300 towers in the quarter to further strengthen the network coverage and provide seamless connectivity. In the last one year, it has rolled out around 45,000 towers.
As of December 31, the company has a total of 19,305 employees against 17,214 total headcount in December 2022.
Shares of Airtel closed at ₹1,113.75 apiece on the BSE on Monday, which is down 3.20 per cent from the previous close.
| Q3 FY24 | Q3 FY23 | % Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Profit | 2,442 crore | 1,588 crore | 53.77 |
| Total Revenue | 37,900 crore | 35,804 crore | 5.85 |
| EBITDA | 20,044 crore | 18,601 crore | 7.75 |
| Number of employees | 19,305 | 17,214 | 12.14 |