Bharti Airtel clocks Rs 1,134-cr consolidated net profit, beats estimates

Payments Bank turns profitable; Nil bank debt in India businesses

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday rang up a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,134 crore for the quarter ended September 30, beating estimates, aided by improved operational performance and exceptional income.

Brokerages had expected Bharti Airtel to show impressive sequential growth in net profit for the July-September quarter (Q2FY22) on the back of a steady subscriber base and tariff hikes in select pre- and post-paid plans. In the corresponding quarter last year, the company posted a net loss of Rs 763 crore.

The average revenue per user for the quarter came in at Rs 153 against Rs 143 in the same period last year on a comparable basis. Its revenue from operations during July-September 2021 jumped 13 per cent to Rs 28,326.4 crore compared with Rs 25,060 crore in the year-ago period, Bharti Airtel said in a statement. On a comparable basis, the jump was higher at 18.8 per cent, the company said. Sequentially, revenue was up by 5.5 per cent.

Gopal Vittal, managing director and chief executive officer, India & South Asia, said: “We hope the reforms momentum will continue and all longstanding issues impacting the industry will be addressed. We continue to maintain a high degree of financial flexibility. As a result, we have now achieved nil bank debt for our India businesses.”

“During the quarter gone by, we sustained our operational excellence with a healthy 5.5 per cent sequential growth rate in consolidated revenues and expansion of the Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) margin to 49.5 per cent,” he said. Ebitda margin was the highest in at least five quarters, while revenue was the highest in at least 22 quarters.

EBITDA stood at Rs 13,810.5 crore in Q2 FY22 over Rs 13,189.4 crore in Q1 FY22, and beat consensus' estimate of Rs 13,666 crore. The EBITDA margin was 49.5 per cent in Q2 FY22 as against 49.1 per cent in Q1 FY22 and 44.9 per cent a year ago. While operating performance improved, the company also reported exceptional income of Rs 722 crore in Q2'FY22 versus an exceptional expense of Rs 49 crore in the year-ago quarter, which further lifted the net profit.

India revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 19,890 crore, increasing by 18.3 per cent YoY on a comparable basis and 10.4 per cent YoY on a reported basis.