Bharti Airtel reports turnaround Q2 numbers; ARPU rises 7% YoY to Rs 153

Bharti Airtel posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,134 crore in Q2 FY22 as against a consolidated net loss of Rs 763.2 crore registered in Q2 FY21.

The telecom operator posted quarterly revenues of Rs 28,326 crore, rising 18.8% year on year on comparable basis and 13% YoY on a reported basis, backed by strong performance delivery across the portfolio. Consolidated EBITDA witnessed an increase of 24.5% YoY to Rs 14,018 crore in Q2 FY22. EBITDA expansion was broad based across the portfolio. EBITDA margin improved to 49.5% in Q2 FY22 from 44.9% in Q2 FY21. Incremental EBITDA margins across businesses remained healthy, with India mobile services EBITDA improving from 42.6% in Q2 FY21 to 49.2% in Q2 FY22.

The company's India revenues for Q2 FY22 stood at Rs 19,890 crore rising 18.3% year on year on a comparable basis and 10.4% year on year on a reported basis. Mobile revenues grew by 20.3% YoY on comparable basis on account of increase in ARPU and strong 4G customer addition. ARPU rose 7% year on year to Rs 153 in Q2 FY22 as compared to Rs 143 in Q2 FY21 on comparable basis. Mobile data consumption grew by 47.5% year on year to 10,943 PBs while monthly data consumption per customer stood at 18.6 GB in Q2 FY22.

The telecom company said it continues to gain strong share of the 4G customers in the market. 4G data customers increased by 26.1% year on year to 192.5 million in Q2 FY22. Meanwhile, total customer base in India stood at 355 million in Q2 FY22.

Homes business segment witnessed a revenue growth of 21.3% year on year with highest ever customer net additions of 467,000 during the quarter to reach to a total base of 3.8 million. Airtel Business continues to accelerate its momentum with 11.5% YoY growth. Digital TV witnessed a revenue growth of 5.7% year on year and continued to strengthen its leadership position with 18 million customer base at the end of quarter. Airtel also announced that it rolled out additional 3,500 towers and 56K mobile broadband base stations in the quarter.

In a statement, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO said, We continue to maintain high degree of financial flexibility. As a result, we have now achieved Nil bank debt for our India businesses. We will continue to evaluate all options to maintain comfortable leverage profile and manage associated costs. During the quarter gone by, we sustained our operational excellence with a healthy 5.5% sequential growth in consolidated revenues and expansion of EBITDA margin to 49.5%. Our strategy of focusing on quality customers has been validated by the strong price flow and ARPU increase that we have seen in our wireless business. The step up in performance of our enterprise and homes business reflects the resilience and strength of our overall portfolio. Even more exciting is the way our new businesses - Airtel Payments Bank, Data Centres and revenues from digital services are shaping up. With a future proofed 5G network, we are well positioned to build a strong Airtel of the future.

The net debt-EBITDA ratio (annualized) and including the impact of leases as on 30 September 2021 stood at 2.96 times as compared to 3.18 times as on 30 September 2020.

Bharti Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 480 Mn customers in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa.

Shares of Bharti Airtel ended 0.08% higher at Rs 712.90 on Tuesday.

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