Bharti Airtel’s Africa net loss widened to $93 million in the fiscal third quarter to December from $74 million a year ago, dragged down by a mix of finance costs, taxes, depreciation & amortisation (D&A) charges and devaluation of the Nigerian currency, although underlying revenue was the highest in the last nine quarters.
The Sunil Mittal-led mobile carrier’s Africa revenue climbed 5.5 % on-year to $919 million (in US constant currency terms) in the three months to December from $871 million a year ago. It grew by 5.4% when adjusted for divestment of tower assets.
“Underlying Africa revenue growth for the quarter accelerated to 6% on-year, which is the highest in the last nine quarters, Raghunath Mandava, Managing Director of Airtel’s Africa unit, said in an official statement Tuesday.
According to him, the company’s efforts to improve quality of customer acquisitions in Africa led to “a reduction in customer churn to 4.9% from 6%,” and continuing focus on cost control led to a 4.9% on-year expansion in underlying Ebitda margin to 24.5%” in the December quarter.
The Africa operation, he said, is “generating positive free cash and is PBT (profit before tax) positive in constant currency”.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortisation (Ebitda) climbed nearly 30% to $225 million from a year earlier.
Depreciation & amortisation charges were 1.8% higher at $164 million against $161 million last year.
Mobile data revenue increased 24% on-year to $153 million. It now represents 16.7 % of total mobile revenue in the December quarter compared with 14.2% in the year-ago period.
Overall Africa average revenue per user (ARPU), a key performance metric, increased 1 % on-year to $3.9 in absolute terms, but was a down 0.5% sequentially.
Total minutes on the network, however, registered a 10.1% growth to 35.91 billion from 32.6 billion in the earlier year.
Data realisation per MB fell 35.1% to $0.42 from $0.64 in the year-ago period despite Airtel Africa’s data customer base expanding 21.3% to 17.9 million from 14.8 million earlier.
Africa data traffic volumes zoomed 91% on-year to 36.8 billion MBs from 19.3 billion MBs, while data ARPU was down 2.2% year-on-year but was virtually flat in absolute terms at $2.9. Sequentially, data ARPU growth was marginally down 0.4%.
The company’s total Airtel Money customer base using the mobile money platform increased by 6.6% to 8.8 million in the quarter to December. Airtel Money’s transaction value was up 32.8% to $4.03 billion in fiscal third quarter, from $3.03 billion in the year-ago period.
The Sunil Mittal-led mobile carrier’s Africa revenue climbed 5.5 % on-year to $919 million (in US constant currency terms) in the three months to December from $871 million a year ago. It grew by 5.4% when adjusted for divestment of tower assets.
“Underlying Africa revenue growth for the quarter accelerated to 6% on-year, which is the highest in the last nine quarters, Raghunath Mandava, Managing Director of Airtel’s Africa unit, said in an official statement Tuesday.
According to him, the company’s efforts to improve quality of customer acquisitions in Africa led to “a reduction in customer churn to 4.9% from 6%,” and continuing focus on cost control led to a 4.9% on-year expansion in underlying Ebitda margin to 24.5%” in the December quarter.
The Africa operation, he said, is “generating positive free cash and is PBT (profit before tax) positive in constant currency”.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortisation (Ebitda) climbed nearly 30% to $225 million from a year earlier.
Depreciation & amortisation charges were 1.8% higher at $164 million against $161 million last year.
Mobile data revenue increased 24% on-year to $153 million. It now represents 16.7 % of total mobile revenue in the December quarter compared with 14.2% in the year-ago period.
Overall Africa average revenue per user (ARPU), a key performance metric, increased 1 % on-year to $3.9 in absolute terms, but was a down 0.5% sequentially.
Total minutes on the network, however, registered a 10.1% growth to 35.91 billion from 32.6 billion in the earlier year.
Data realisation per MB fell 35.1% to $0.42 from $0.64 in the year-ago period despite Airtel Africa’s data customer base expanding 21.3% to 17.9 million from 14.8 million earlier.
Africa data traffic volumes zoomed 91% on-year to 36.8 billion MBs from 19.3 billion MBs, while data ARPU was down 2.2% year-on-year but was virtually flat in absolute terms at $2.9. Sequentially, data ARPU growth was marginally down 0.4%.
The company’s total Airtel Money customer base using the mobile money platform increased by 6.6% to 8.8 million in the quarter to December. Airtel Money’s transaction value was up 32.8% to $4.03 billion in fiscal third quarter, from $3.03 billion in the year-ago period.
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