GURUGRAM, India — Indian multinational telecommunications Bharti Airtel announced a 63 percent dip in its profit for the April to June quarter [First quarter of FY22] to INR 283 crore ($38.15 million).
The profit in the last quarter of the previous financial year (Q4 FY21) was INR 759 crore ($102.37 million).
In the year-ago June quarter, it had posted a loss of INR 15,933 crore ($2.14 billion) due to one-time provisioning for adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.
“While our wireless revenue was impacted by the Covid lockdown induced slowdown in terms of device shipments and a financial squeeze at the lower end of the market, our overall performance reflected the resilience and strength of our portfolio,” said Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and CEO for India and South Asia, Airtel in a press release.
“We continue to invest in the best of emerging technologies, including networks and digital capabilities.”
The company’s consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) during Q1 FY22 totaled INR 13,189 crore (1.77 billion) while margins improved to 49.1 percent.
The Net Debt-EBITDA ratio (annualized) and including the impact of leases as of June 30, 2021, is at 3.03 times as compared to 3.02 times as of June 30, 2020. Excluding pending AGR dues, the Net Debt-EBITDA ratio (annualized) is at 2.55 times as of June 30, 2021.
Consolidated revenues for Q1 FY22 came at INR 26,854 crore ($3.62 billion).
“The Digital services offerings of Airtel continue to see growth. Monthly Active Users reached over 187 million across our key digital assets — Thanks, Wynk, Xstream,” Airtel said.
“There are over 1.2 million retailers transacting and making payments every day on Mitra App. The company continues to witness accelerated adoption and scaling up of its cloud communication & ad-tech platforms with new customer onboarding.”
Indian revenues were up 19 percent to INR 18,828 crore ($2.53 billion) on a comparable basis and 11 percent on a reported basis. Mobile revenues grew by 22 percent year-on-year on a comparable basis due to improved realizations as well as strong 4G customer addition.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter came in at INR 146 ($1.97) as compared to INR 138 ($1.86) in Q1 FY21, which the company said was an outcome of the focus on acquiring quality customers as well as secular upgrading of customers to data.
“We added 5.1 million 4G customers during the quarter, and our enterprise business in India continued to deliver strongly. Our Homes business grew by just about 13 percent over last year and added 285K customers in the quarter, the highest ever,” said Vittal.
(With inputs from ANI)
Edited by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Praveen Pramod Tewari
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