Bharti Airtel reported a strong final quarter to its fiscal year, with revenues up 8.4 percent year-on-year to INR 249.6 billion (USD 3.69 billion) in the three months to March. Excluding the impact of cuts to termination rates and the sale of its mobile towers in Africa, revenues rose 10.1 percent annually, led by a 43.7 percent rise in mobile data revenue to INR 44.3 billion.
EBITDA increased 14.1 percent to INR 91.9 billion, and the EBITDA margin expanded by 1.8 percent to 36.8 percent, driven by improvement in India. EBIT rose a slower 1.1 percent to INR 43.2 billion due to higher spectrum amortisation in India. Lower forex losses helped offset higher interest expenses, leading to a rise in net profit to INR 12.9 billion from INR 12.6 billion a year ago. Operating cash flow nearly doubled, to INR 31.3 billion from INR 16.1 billion.
For shareholders, Airtel announced a final dividend of INR 1.36 per share and plans to buy back up to 0.9 percent of its shares, for up to INR 14.3 billion.
In its home market, Airtel reported quarterly revenues up 9.9 percent year-on-year to INR 183.3 billion, and EBITDA rose 14 percent to INR 77.3 billion, giving a margin of 42.2 percent, up from 40.7 a year ago. Revenue growth was led by an 11.9 percent increase in mobile and 23.5 percent growth in digital TV.
Mobile data revenues in India jumped 44.5 percent to INR 33.6 billion, as data customers increased by 25.5 percent and traffic rose by 69.4 percent. Data ARPU increased 12 percent year-on-year to INR 196, led by a 31 percent increase in usage per customer to 859 MB. Total ARPU was down 2 percent annually to INR 194, hurt by the cut to termination rates and a small drop in usage per customer.
Mobile customers increased by 7.948 million in the three months to 251.237 million. Airtel also reported its fixed broadband base up 20 percent year-on-year to 1.817 million, and digital TV subscribers rose by 16 percent to 11.725 million.
In Africa, Airtel suffered a loss of 1.505 million customers in the quarter, mainly due to subscriber registration requirements, for a total base of 80.564 million at the end of March. Churn increased to 6.7 percent, while ARPU was stable versus Q4 at USD 4.2. Nearly one in five customers used mobile data in the period, and total data traffic was up 110 percent year-on-year. Customers averaged 507 MB each, up 58 percent from a year ago. The active Airtel Money customer base increased to 9.6 million, boosting the total transaction value on Airtel Money by 73.8 percent to USD 4.9 billion.
Total revenues in Africa rose 4.5 percent to USD 1.026 billion in Q1, and EBITDA improved 10 percent to USD 223 million, giving a margin of 21.8 percent. Adjusted for the towers sale and in constant currency terms, revenues were up 5.9 percent, the highest growth in six quarters. Data revenues rose 43.1 percent to USD 161 million, accounting for 15.7 percent of total revenue. Airtel said it reduced cash burn at the African operations to USD 52 million versus USD 154 million a year ago.
