Telecom major Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹1,341 crore for the second quarter (Q2) ended September 30, a year-on-year (y-o-y) decline of 37.5 per cent compared to ₹2,145 crore in the corresponding period last year.
However, consolidated revenue of the company rose 7.3 per cent y-o-y to ₹37,044 crore during the quarter in review, compared with ₹34,527 crore in the July-September quarter last year, backed by strong and consistent performance in India operations, Airtel said.
India revenues for Q2’24 grew 11 per cent at at ₹26,995 crore (₹24,333 crore). Mobile revenues grew 11 per cent on account of improved realisation as well as strong 4G/5G customer additions during the year.
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Average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter stood at ₹203 compared to ₹190 in Q2 FY23 on the back of sustained focus on acquiring high value customers and improved realisations, it said.
“This has been yet another quarter of solid revenue growth and improved margins. Our India revenue continues to gain momentum and grew sequentially by 2.4 per cent. Our consolidated revenue, however, was impacted by the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira. Consolidated EBITDA margins expanded to 53.1 per cent supported by a strong war on Waste programme,” Gopal Vittal, Managing Director, Airtel, said.
The company added 7.7 million 4G/5G net additions and exited the quarter with an industry leading ARPU of Rs.203, he said adding that it recorded the highest ever postpaid net additions of one-million subscribers in Q2’24.
Strong growth
“Our Postpaid and Homes businesses continued their strong growth trajectory as we added the highest ever net adds in both these segments in any single quarter. Our performance is under pinned by a simple and consistent strategy of focusing on quality customers and delivering the best experience to them in a seamless digital way,” Vittal added.
Mobile data consumption was also up by 19.6 per cent, consumption per customer was recorded at 21.7 GB per month during the quarter in review. Homes business saw sustained momentum growth with highest ever 4.71 lakh customer net additions in the quarter, Airtel said.
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As of September 30, Airtel has a customer base of around 389 million and capex for the quarter at ₹7,778 crore and a total headcount of 17,924 employees.
Airtel also informed that during the quarter ended September 30, the company has paid ₹8,024 crore to the Department of Telecommunications towards part prepayment of deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in auction of 2015.
Shares of Airtel closed at ₹914.20 on the BSE on Tuesday, down 1.26 per cent from the previous close.
