Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a more than two-fold increase in its consolidated net profit to £2,008 million for the year ended March 31.
The company, which had posted net income of £7.59 billion for the January-March 2021 quarter, reported total revenue of £31,500 billion, up 22.3% year-on-year.
“Our consolidated revenues for the quarter increased 5.5% and EBITDA margins increased to 50.8%, underscoring our focus on comprehensive delivery,” said Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India and South Asia. “Mobile revenue increased 9.5% as we saw the tariff increase flow through in full. Airtel continues to have the highest ARPU at £178.”
He added that the personal and corporate businesses continue to show very strong growth momentum and the company’s strong balance sheet and cash flow have enabled it to prepay some of our spectrum liabilities and improve our leverage.
“We remain optimistic about the possibilities in the coming years and believe we are well positioned as a company for three reasons. First, our ability to consistently execute a simple strategy to attract quality customers and provide them with the best experience. Secondly, our future-proof business model with massive investments in both infrastructure and digital skills. And finally, our financial prudence, backed by our strong focus on governance,” he said.
During the quarter, mobile ARPU increased to ₹178 compared to ₹145 in Q4’21. The Company recorded an extraordinary total net gain (after tax) of ₹984.7 crore, including from the sale of Tower assets and a gain on a settlement with a strategic seller.
The Company’s consolidated net income before non-recurring items for the quarter was ₹1,860 crore.
For full year FY22, the company posted a net profit of £4,255 billion compared to a loss of £15,084 billion in the previous financial year (FY21), while revenue rose 16% to £1,16,547 billion.
The telecom company’s total customer base is 491 million across 16 countries and capital expenditures for the quarter were ₹5,997 crore. Bharti Airtel said its consolidated mobile data traffic for the quarter was 11,550PB, with a 29.5% year-on-year growth.
Revenue in India for Q4 22 was ₹22,500 crore, up 22.7% yoy, while mobile revenue increased by 25.1% due to the increase in ARPU and strong 4G subscriber growth over the period of the year increased.
“ARPU continues to be the best in the industry, average data usage per data subscriber is 18.8 GB/month and voice usage per subscriber is 1,083 minutes/month,” it added.
