Bharti Airtel reported revenues for its fiscal third quarter to December up 5.8 percent year-on-year to INR 232.2 billion (USD 3.75 billion). EBITDA rose a faster 9.6 percent to INR 77.9 billion, and the margin improved to 33.5 percent from 32.4 a year ago. Net profit more than doubled, to INR 14.4 billion from INR 6.1 billion. Amid a 60 percent increase in capex for rolling out LTE and expanding 3G in India, operating cash flow fell 23.4 percent to INR 32.8 billion.
The mobile customer base increased 3.1 percent compared to September, to 299.71 million. Growth was strongest in Africa, up 4.5 percent to 74.60 million customers, while India grew by 2.6 percent to 217.22 million, and the rest of South Asia rose 2.8 percent to 7.89 million. The broadband customer base was little changed at 3.39 million, and TV subscribers increased by 2.8 percent in the three months to 9.81 million.
In India, Airtel grew mobile service revenues 14 percent year-on-year to INR 130.1 billion, thanks to a bigger customer base and more stable pricing. ARPU rose 2 percent from the previous quarter and 4 percent year-on-year to INR 202, driven by growing data usage. The data customer base increased 32 percent to 42.25 million, of which 16.94 million used 3G. Data traffic nearly doubled year-on-year and was up 14 percent from the previous quarter to 77.28 million MB. Data now accounts for 22.6 percent of service revenue, versus 17.0 percent a year ago.
Airtel added almost 3,800 3G sites in the quarter for a total 41,850 at the end of December. Tota network sites were up by 1,600 to just under 143,000, and the operator also added almost 5,000 km of fibre in the quarter.
In Africa, revenues in dollars were under pressure from currency fluctuations and economic pressure in a number of oil- and commodity-dependent countries. Revenues fell 5.3 percent year-on-year to USD 1.10 billion, but were up 3.9 percent at constant currency rates. ARPU dropped to USD 5.1 from USD 5.4 in the previous quarter and USD 5.8 a year ago.
Airtel still managed to reduce churn and increase voice and data traffic in Africa. With over 36 percent of customers now using data services, traffic rose 76 percent year-on-year and 18 percent from the previous quarter to just under 9.5 million MB. Airtel added over 1,100 3G sites in the quarter for a total over over 9,200 in Africa. The number of Airtel Money users reached 6.2 million at the end of December, and the value of transactions in the quarter rose by 71 percent year-on-year to USD 2.9 billion.
