Bharti Airtel reported revenues for its fiscal second quarter are up 7.1 percent year-on-year to INR 228.4 billion.
According to the company, growth was driven by a 66.7 percent increase in mobile data revenues to INR 25.4 billion, and a 8.4 percent rise in the number of customers which crossed the 300 million mark to 303.7 million.
EBITDA for the three months to September rose 12.1 percent to INR 77.0 billion, giving a margin up 1.5 percent to 33.7 percent. The net profit lifted 170.2 percent to INR 13.8 billion, the company’s highest quarterly profit since March 2011, boosted by improved operational efficiency, lower forex and derivative losses, and higher MTM losses on investment in the corresponding quarter last year. Operating cash flow fell 16 percent to INR 39.7 billion.
According to Telecompaper, in Africa, Airtel saw revenues increase by 6.4 percent in local currency terms, but the USD appreciation depressed the reported growth to 1.9 percent year-on-year. Data revenues lifted 56.8 percent to USD 115 million, led by increase in the data customer base by 50.4 percent and higher usage per customer by 24.5 percent. Data revenues contributed 10.1 percent of overall Africa revenues, compared to 6.6 percent last year. The number of active Airtel Money customers rose to 5.3 million with the total value of transactions on the Airtel money platform crossing USD 3.3 billion.
Staff Writer
