Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s second-largest telecom services provider, posted a net profit of ₹3,593 crore in the quarter ended 30 September 2024, up 168% from the year-ago period but down 13.6% from the quarter ended 30 June, largely due to strong momentum in the India market and growth in constant currency in Africa.
The Sunil Mittal-promoted telecom firm clocked consolidated revenues of ₹ ₹41,473 crore, up 12% year-on-year and 7.7% quarter-on-quarter, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) was at ₹22,021 crore, up 12% on-year and 10.4% sequentially. Ebitda margins rose to 53.1%, up from 51.8% in the quarter ended 30 June.
India business quarterly revenue stood at ₹31,561 crore, up 16.9% on-year and 8.7% sequentially, backed by improved realizations in the mobile segment and sustained momentum in the homes and enterprise business for the telco.
India mobile services revenue was up 18.5% on-year to ₹24,837 crore, owing to tariff repair, strong smartphone data customer additions, and focus on premiumization.
It added 26.2 million smartphone data users in the quarter and 0.8 million postpaid users, leading to improved average revenue per user (Arpu) per month, a key profitability metric, of ₹233, against the year-ago’s ₹203.
Gopal Vittal, chief executive and managing director, who has been elevated to the position of vice-chairman, said: “The flow-through of tariff repair is in-line with our expectation on Arpu increase and SIM consolidation. Our focus on winning quality customers and driving premiumization has helped us add 4.2 million smartphone customers.”
He reiterated the need for “further tariff repair” for sustained investments, given that the return on capital employed for India was still only 11%.
“We continue to expand our wi-fi coverage with FWA offerings to over 2,000 cities. We continue to invest in our digital businesses to diversify portfolio strength and drive long-term growth,” he added, while noting that the telco launched India’s first AI-powered, network-based spam detection solution to solve the endemic problem of spam calls and messages.
