Airtel Africa posts $83 mn net on data & payment biz growth

Bharti Airtel's Africa subsidiary has posted a net profit of $83 million (around Rs 581 crore at Rs 70 a dollar exchange) for the March-end quarter, compared with a net loss of $49 million a year ago, boosted by a surge in data consumption and a rise in the volume of transaction value on the Airtel Money platform.

But the net income has fallen substantially and sequentially from $123 million in the December quarter.

The Sunil Mittal company said this was due to an exceptional loss of $7 million, "mainly on account network modernisation across various OPCOs (operating companies)," the quarterly earnings report of the company said.

The total revenue for Airtel Africa rose 6 per cent on-year to $781 million, though it fell from $783 million sequentially.

The net income and revenue both have fallen sequentially. Airtel Africa is in the process of a public listing on the London Stock Exchange around June this year in order to raise $1.5-$1.6 billion.

The net debt of the Africa operations has fallen to $4,004 million from $7,755 million a year ago period and marginally from $4,189 million in the December quarter.

"Data usage per customer during the quarter was at 1,375 MBs as compared to 963 MBs in the corresponding quarter last year, an increase of 42.7 per cent," the company said, adding that data customers increased by 5.1 million on year to 30 million, representing 30.4 per cent of the total customer base, as compared to 27.9 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

The total minutes on the network during the just-ended quarter grew 18.3 per cent to 52.9 billion.

The company said that its Airtel Money customer base increased 24 per cent annually to 14.2 million and the total transaction value on Airtel Money platform increased by 22 per cent to $6.9 billion.

Airtel Money posted a revenue of $70 million in Q4 as compared to $38 million in the previous quarter.

Airtel Africa serves 99 million customers in 14 countries. Its Ebidta rose 16 per cent on-year (earnings before interest tax, depreciation & amortisation) at $354 million. On-year Ebitda margin also expanded from 42 per cent in the fiscal third quarter to 43.8 per cent in the fiscal fourth quarter.

But average revenue per user (ARPU) - a key performance metric - dropped 3.1 per cent on-year and 3.4 per cent sequentially - to $2.7. Voice ARPU also fell 3.5 per cent on quarter and 7.2 per cent on year, but data ARPU rose 2.8 per cent and 6.8 per cent sequentially and on-year wise.

Airtel's Africa unit has already raised $1.45 billion through pre-IPO placements to the likes of Qatar Investment Authority, Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singtel and SoftBank Group International, to reduce its net debt.

--IANS

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