Bharti Airtel Q4 profit slumps 31% to ₹2,072 cr

Net profit of Bharti Airtel slipped 31% year-on-year to ₹2,072 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, compared with ₹3,006 crore in the same quarter last year. For the full fiscal, profit fell 10.5% to ₹7,467 crore from ₹8,346 crore in FY23.

Revenue from operations rose 4.4% year-on-year to ₹37,599 crore during the fourth quarter, impacted by currency devaluation in Africa, particularly Nigerian Naira. India business posted quarterly revenues of ₹28,513 crore, up 12.9% backed by strong performance across the portfolio.

Mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to ₹209 in Q4 FY24 as against ₹193 in Q4 FY23, led by a sustained focus on acquiring quality customers and mix improvement. Mobile revenues grew by 12.9% on account of improved realisation as well as strong 4G/5G customer additions during the year.

India’s second-largest telecom operator strengthened its leadership position in the postpaid segment with a net addition of 0.8 million in Q4 FY24, thus reaching a customer base of 51.2 million.

EBITDA margin dropped by 10 basis points to 52.1% in Q4 FY24 compared with 52.2% in Q4 FY23. Consolidated EBITDA witnessed an increase of 4.2% year-on-year to ₹19,590 crore in Q4 FY24.

“Our return on capital employed continues to remain low due to the absence of tariff repair in the industry,” says Gopal Vittal, managing director, Bharti Airtel. “Our relentless focus on improving customer experience has resulted in 20% churn reduction during the quarter. Our simple and clear strategy coupled with razor-sharp focus on execution enabled us to end the quarter with life-time high market share across all businesses,” Vittal adds.

Homes business sustained its growth momentum and delivered a revenue growth of 20%, aided by the company’s strategy to harness the growing demand of high-speed and reliable broadband in India.

Airtel says its focus on digitisation and acquiring high value customers led to 331,000 customer additions in the quarter, taking the total base of 7.6 million.

“We continue to accelerate our home-pass rollout on the back of asset light local cable operator partnership model, we are now live in 1290 cities,” it says.

Digital TV revenue increased 5.5% year-on-year with 16.1 million customer base at the end of quarter, the telecom company says, adding that its focus on market specific strategy coupled with simplified pricing and convergence approach ensured that the business continues to grow its market share.

Airtel Business revenues rose by 14.1%, led by growth in underlying portfolio and consolidation of Beetel.

Mobile data consumption jumped by 25% year-on-year with consumption per customer at 22.6 GB per month.

For FY24, the board recommended a final dividend of ₹8 per fully paid-up equity share.

The company rolled out 10,500 towers in the quarter to strengthen its network coverage. It rolled out 43,102 towers during the year to ensure coverage in rural as well as urban areas.