Airtel Q3 results: Net profit falls 3% to Rs 830 cr, revenue rises 13%

'The recent tariff revision for mobile services has gone down well and we are exiting the quarter with an industry leading ARPU of Rs 163,' says CEO Gopal Vittal

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported 3% decline in consolidated net profit attributable to owners at Rs 830 crore for the quarter ending December 31, 2021. It earned net profit of Rs 854 crore in the year-ago period.

Airtel reported a 12.6% rise in third-quarter revenue, helped by recent tariff hikes and subscriber additions.

The company's consolidated revenue from operations for the quarter ended Dec. 31 climbed to Rs 29,867 crore from Rs 26,518 crore a year ago.

Airtel said its average revenue per user (ARPU) - a key performance indicator in the telecoms industry - was Rs 163 for the third quarter, up from Rs 146 a year ago.

Airtel, in late-November, increased tariffs on prepaid plans, as did Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, while reiterating that the industry's mobile ARPU needs to be at Rs 200, and eventually at Rs 300, for a financially healthy business model.

Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said: “We have delivered another quarter of sustained performance across all our business segments. Overall Sequential revenue growth was at 5.4% and EBITDA margins came in at 49.9%. The recent tariff revision for mobile services has gone down well and we are exiting the quarter with an industry leading ARPU of Rs 163. The full impact of the revised mobile tariffs, however, will be visible in the fourth quarter. Google’s recent investment is a strong validation of Airtel’s role in being a leading pioneer of India’s digital revolution. Our emerging digital services portfolio across Airtel IQ, AdTech, digital market place, Nxtra and digital banking positions us well to build an Airtel of the future.”

On Tuesday, Airtel's scrip on BSE closed trading nearly flat at Rs 706.95.

The consolidated net debt of the company increased to Rs 1.59 trillion in the December 2021 quarter from Rs 1.47 trillion in the year-ago period.

Bharti Airtel's India revenue during the reported quarter grew by 10 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 20,913 crore from Rs 19,007 crore earlier.

Mobile revenues jumped 19.1 per cent YoY. The total customer base of the company stood at 485 million across 16 countries where it operates, with India accounting for 355 million subscribers.

The mobile services revenue in India grew by 9 per cent to Rs 16,091.7 crore, as against Rs 14,779 crore in the quarter ended December 2020.

Its 4G customer base in India grew by 18.1 per cent to 195 million in the December 2021 quarter, from 165.6 crore in the year-ago period.

Data usage per customer on Bharti Airtel India network rose 11.7 per cent to 18.28 gigabytes from 16.37 GB.

The company's capital expenditure for the quarter dropped to Rs 6,101.5 crore, from Rs 6,863.8 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.