Airtel posts 30% rise in net profit on data

Revenue up 3.6%; Africa business continues to be a drag

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom service provider, has posted a 30.5 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 1,255 crore for the quarter ended March this year, owing to growth in data revenue. For the year-ago period, it had recorded a net profit of Rs 962 crore.

For the March 2015 quarter, the company’s revenue rose 3.6 per cent to Rs 23,016 crore from Rs 22,219 crore in the corresponding period last year.

For 2014-15, the company’s net profit stood at Rs 5,183 crore, up 86.9 per cent, while revenue grew 7.3 per cent to Rs 92,039 crore. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation stood at 35 per cent, against 32.9 per cent at the end of March 2014.

At Rs 1,939 crore, finance costs rose 96 per cent year-on-year during the March quarter. For 2014-15, these stood at Rs 4,846 crore.

The company’s Africa business continued to weigh heavy, with increasing losses and declining revenue. For the quarter ended March, losses for the Africa business increased to Rs 1,138 crore from Rs 645 quarter in the corresponding period last year. For FY15, the losses stood at Rs 3,548 crore, against Rs 1,855 crore for FY14.

Revenue from Africa operations declined to Rs 6,215 crore during the March quarter from Rs 7,062 crore in the year-ago period. For FY15, revenue from the company’s Africa business stood at Rs 26,907 crore, against Rs 27,248 crore for FY14.

Though Airtel said its revenue from Africa grew 3.4 per cent annually in constant currency terms, the reported revenue was down 12.6 per cent, owing to significant currency movements in the past year.

“The year has ended on a healthy note, with revenue growth accelerating to 12.1 per cent in FY15 from 9.9 per cent and 9.5 per cent in the previous two years, respectively,” said Managing Director and chief executive (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal.

Mobile data revenue from India stood at Rs 2,324 crore, growth of 70.4 per cent year-on-year, aided by an increase of 41.2 per cent in usage per customer and 30.3 per cent in data customer base. Data average revenue per user (ARPU) rose by Rs 43 to Rs 176 in the March quarter, while data revenue contributed 17.6 per cent to the India revenue from the mobile segment, against 11.5 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.

Overall, minutes on the network increased four  per cent to 326,659 million during the March quarter. Non-voice revenue contributed 32.3 per cent to the total revenue during the quarter, against 30.8 per cent in the December quarter.

For mobile services in India, ARPU declined two per cent to Rs 198, compared to the previous quarter. Data ARPU increased three per cent to Rs 176, while data usage per user rose five per cent to 656 Mb. Though minutes on the network increased four per cent to 277,869 million, on a sequential basis, voice ARPU declined three per cent to Rs 151.

For the company’s Africa business, minutes on voice network grew two per cent quarter-on-quarter to 31,045 million but voice ARPU declined 15 per cent to $3.3 during the March quarter. Data ARPU declined 10 per cent to $1.3, though data usage increased seven per cent to 130 Mb.

For 2014-15, the Bharti Airtel board has proposed dividend of Rs 2.22 per share (face value Rs 5). Given the interim dividend of Rs 1.63 per share, the overall dividend for the year comes to Rs 3.85 a share, according to a company statement.