Airtel Q1 profit zooms 158% to ₹4,160 cr; revenue up 3%

Beating the Street estimates, India's second-largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel Ltd recorded 158% year-on-year growth in its consolidated net profit at ₹4,160 crore for the April-June quarter of 2024-25 compared to ₹1,613 crore profit in the year-ago period

The company's consolidated revenues for Q1’25 stood at ₹38,506 crore, up 2.8% YoY, which was impacted by currency devaluation in Africa. Its consolidated mobile data traffic came in at 19,130 PBs in the said quarter, with a YoY growth of 26.9%.

Airtel's India revenues for Q1’25 stood at ₹29,046 crore, up 10.1% YoY, while its mobile revenues surged 10.5% YoY on improved realisations during the quarter and sustained customer additions. ARPU for the quarter stood at ₹211 as compared to ₹200 in Q1’24. "We continue to deliver industry-leading ARPU growth along with growing average data usage per data customer," Airtel says in an exchange filing.

Airtel says it added 0.8 million users in the postpaid segment in Q1’25, reaching a customer base of 24 million. Overall, the company added 29.7 million in the smartphone segment in the said quarter, up 12.9% YoY. "We rolled out additional 6.3k towers and 15.5k mobile broadband stations in the quarter to provide seamless connectivity and superior network experience."

The company's home business delivered a revenue growth of 17.6% YoY. The unit added 3,48,000 customers in the quarter to reach total 8 million.

Airtel's consolidated EBITDA witnessed an increase of 1.0% YoY to ₹19,944 crore in Q1’25. EBITDA margin is 51.8% in Q1’25 vs 52.7% in Q1’24. The telco says it fully prepaid ₹7,904 crore in Jun’24 for all deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in the auction of the year 2012 and 2015 to the Department of Telecom, which were at the highest interest cost.

Gopal Vittal, MD, says Q1 FY25 was yet another "steady quarter" with India revenue growing at 1.9% sequentially and sustained EBITDA margins expansion to 53.7%. "Our stringent focus on driving cost efficiencies is reflected in strong operating leverage. Africa continues to deliver strong underlying constant currency revenue growth. India operations added 6.7 million smartphone customers and reported an improved ARPU of ₹211. Our postpaid strategy continues to yield results with 0.8 Mn net adds."

Bharti Hexacom

Cellular and fixed line services provider and Bharti Airtel's subsidiary Bharti Hexacom Ltd has reported a 101.90% year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit at ₹511.2 crore for the April-June quarter of 2024-25. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Bharti Hexacom's profit surged 129.65%.

The company's revenues for Q1’25 were recorded at ₹1,911 crore, up 13.6% YoY. Mobile data traffic at 1,473 PBs in the quarter recorded 30.6% growth YoY.

The company's mobile revenues grew 12.9% YoY on improved realisation and sustained customer additions. "ARPU for the quarter stood at ₹205 compared to ₹194 in Q1’24 driven by continued mix improvement and focus on quality acquisitions," says Bharti Hexacom says. Overall EBITDA increased 6.6% YoY to ₹912 crore in Q1’25. EBITDA margin decreased from 50.8% in Q1’24 to 47.7% in Q1’25.