Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Monday posted a consolidated net income (after exceptional items) of ₹2,145 crore, up by 89 per cent year-on-year (YoY) for the second quarter ended September 30, as compared with ₹1,134 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Beating street estimates, revenues of the company also rose by 22 per cent YoY to ₹34,527 crore, backed by strong and consistent performance delivery across the portfolio and crossing 500 million customers globally, as compared with ₹28,326 crore in the same period the previous year.
India business quarterly revenue was up 22 per cent YoY to ₹24,333 crore, the company said in a statement adding that mobile services revenue for the India market was up by around 25 per cent YoY, led by continued 4G customer addition and increase in average revenue per user (ARPU).
“We have delivered yet another quarter with competitive revenue growth and improved margins. Our consolidated revenue grew sequentially by 5.3 per cent, and EBITDA margin expanded to 51 per cent. The consistency of our execution is driven by the strength and resilience of our portfolio,” Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, India and South Asia, Airtel, said.
He said that Mobile ARPU expanded to ₹190 as compared to ₹153 last year on the back of premiumisation and deep customer understanding.
“We are now rolling out 5G and are confident that Airtel 5G Plus will deliver the best experience in India while being kinder to the environment. I do believe that 5G technology has the potential of bringing tremendous innovation into India. At the same time we remain concerned about the low return on capital employed (ROCE) that our business delivers due to pricing that is the lowest in the world. Given the large investments required to drive digital adoption in India we believe there is a need for tariff correction,” Vittal added.
The company said it strengthened its leadership position in the postpaid segment with a customer base of 31.6 million (including IoT), continues to gain a substantial share of the 4G customers in the market, and added 17.8 million 4G data customers to its network over the last year.
It added that average data usage per data customer is at 20.3 GBs/month and voice usage per customer at 1,082 mins/month.
Shares of Airtel closed at ₹832 apiece on the BSE on Monday, up 1.86 per cent from the previous close.
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