Bharti Airtel Limited has announced its audited consolidated Ind-AS results for the second quarter that ended on 30 September 2017, noting that revenues were up by 2.8 per cent year over year (Y-o-Y) on an underlying basis in Africa
According to the report, the consolidated revenues for Q2’18 stands at US$217.77bn, an Y-o-Y drop of 10.4 per cent on an underlying basis. The consolidated mobile data traffic stands at 853mn MBs in the quarter and has registered a robust Y-o-Y growth of 293.8 per cent on an underlying basis.
The report has also stated that the EBITDA margin for Africa stands at 32.1 per cent, up 9.1 per cent Y-o-Y on an underlying basis.
Mobile data traffic has grown by 83.8 per cent to 63bn MBs in the given time period as compared to 34bn MBs in the corresponding time in 2016. The data customers are increased by 20.1 per cent from the same time period in 2016.
Active Airtel money customer base stands at 9.5mn, increasing the total transaction value on Airtel money platform by 31.1 per cent to US$4.9bn, said the company.
Raghunath Mandava, managing director and CEO of Bharti Airtel for Africa, said, “Airtel Africa underlying revenues grew by 2.8 per cent Y-o-Y with net revenues growing 6.3 per cent on the back of increase in data penetration. Data traffic grew by 83.8 per cent Y-o-Y. Airtel Money continues to lead with transaction values growing over 30 per cent Y-o-Y."
The revenue for India for Q2’18 stands at US$167.28bn, a decline by 13 per cent Y-o-Y, which is primarily led by mobile drop of 16.8 per cent on an Y-o-Y basis. Mobile market continues to experience value erosion and financial stress led by competitive pressures.
The company’s consolidated net debt has increased to US$914.8bn from US$878.4bn in the previous quarter. Capex investments stepped up in the quarter behind both data coverage and capacity. Net debt excluding the deferred payment liabilities to the DOT and finance lease obligations has increased by US$25.54bn sequentially in the quarter.
In a statement, Gopal Vittal, managing director and CEO of Bharti Airtel for India and South Asia, said, “The financial stress in the industry continues due to double digit revenue decline and will be further accentuated by the reduction in IUC rates in the next quarter. This will eventually force operator consolidation and exits as we have witnessed in the recent past.”
The company looks forward increase revenue market share in the competitive environment by providing superior customer experience and strategically investing behind building more data capacities, he further added.
