Bharti Airtel Q4 earnings: Profit soars 164% on year, ARPU rises to Rs 178

Profit Soars: Telecom major, Bharti Airtel, reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 2008 crore for the March quarter partially aided by a higher exceptional item of Rs 906 crore, a rise of 165% YoY. In the year-ago period, the net profit was Rs 759 crore. Sequentially, the net profit was down by 142%. The net profit is well below the street estimate of Rs 1,581.3 crore.

Revenue increase: The revenue reported by the company for Q4FY22 is Rs 31,500 crore against Rs 25,747 crore in the year-ago period. The growth was backed by strong and consistent performance delivery across the portfolio. On a sequential basis, the revenue is higher by 5.5% from the revenue of Rs 29,867 crore recorded in Q3FY22. The operating profit in the quarter rose 27% YoY to Rs 15,998 crore. 

Segment revenue: India business posts quarterly revenues of Rs 22,500 crore – up 23% YoY. Mobile services India revenues are up 25% YoY, led by an increase in ARPU. Airtel Business revenues up by 13% YoY backed by continued strong demand for data portfolio and emerging businesses. Homes business continues to have a robust revenue growth, up 46% YoY led by strong customer additions and stood at Rs 876 crore. Digital TV revenue declined by 2% YoY.

EBITDA: EBITDA margin for India business inched higher by 191 bps YoY to 50.8%. The company was also able to improve upon its EBITDA margins for its Africa business by 187 bps YoY to 49.6%. 

India's EBIT margin at 34.2% was up 368 bps YoY at 18.8% while the EBIT margin in Africa improved 349 bps YoY to 34.2%.

ARPU: The Average Revenue Per User increased to Rs 178 in Q4FY22 as against Rs 145 in Q4FY21. Sequentially, the ARPU was up 9.6% from Rs 163 in the December quarter.

Other updates: Indian customer base increased by 1% sequentially and 2.7% YoY to 360 million. The company managed to increase its subscriber base in Africa by 2% on-quarter and a robust 8.7% YoY. Average data usage per data customer at 18.8 GBs/month and voice usage per customer at 1,083 mins /month. Homes business witnessed continual customer net additions, 341K additions. Digital TV's customer base declined YoY by 0.9% and stood at 17.5 million. 

Dividend: The company has recommended a dividend of Rs 3 per fully paid-up equity share of face value Rs 5 each and Rs 0.75 per partly paid-up equity share of face value Rs 5 each for the FY22. 

Management Commentary: "This has been another quarter to cap a full year of consistent and competitive performance across our portfolio underscoring our focus on all-round delivery. Our strong balance sheet and cash flows have enabled us to further repay some of our spectrum liabilities ahead of schedule and improve our leverage", said Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia.

Airtel’s share price closed 1.79% higher at 705.60 per share.