Airtel Africa profit after tax up 54% to $180 million in December quarter

Airtel Africa reported a 54.4 per cent increase in profit after tax (PAT) to $180 million for the December 2021 quarter.

Telecom operator Airtel Africa on Friday reported a 54.4 per cent increase in profit after tax (PAT) to USD 180 million for the December 2021 quarter.

The company had posted a PAT of USD 116 million in the same period a year ago.

The underlying revenue of Bharti Airtel's African telecom arm increased by 17.9 per cent on a reported currency basis to USD 1.22 billion, from USD 1.03 billion in the December 2020 quarter. It was up 20 per cent on a constant currency basis.

"A strong third quarter has contributed to a pleasing nine-month financial performance across all key metrics. Operationally we have continued to execute on our network and distribution expansion plans, driving continued strong growth in ARPUs across voice, data and mobile money," Airtel Africa CEO Segun Ogunsanya said.

He said there also has been further improvement in customer growth trends for the group, with Nigeria returning to strong customer growth after a period affected by the implementation of new 'know your customer' requirements.

Airtel Nigeria posted 1.9 million net additions in the third quarter, taking total customer additions at group level to 3.1 million.

Airtel Africa's customer base increased by 5.8 per cent to 125.8 million in December 2021 from 118.9 million a year ago.

For the nine months ended December 2021, Airtel Africa's PAT almost doubled to USD 514 million from USD 261 million in the corresponding period of 2020-21.

The revenue of the company increased 21.7 per cent to USD 3.5 billion during the three quarters ended December 2021, from USD 2.87 billion in the corresponding period a year ago.