 "bharti airtel")
Bharti Airtel on Thursday reported a flat consolidated net profit of Rs 1,612 crore in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023-24 (Fy24), compared with Rs 1,607 in the same quarter last year. On a sequential basis, net profit nearly halved from the Rs 3,005.6 crore posted in the fourth quarter of 2022-23.
The consolidated revenue for Q1FY24 grew 19 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 19,746 crore. Ebitda margins improved 271 basis points YoY, reaching 53.7 per cent.
Present across 16 countries, Airtel’s overall customer base stood at 529 million. The company stated that its total global capital expenditure for the quarter stood at Rs 10,486 crore, with the bulk (Rs 9,327 crore) being undertaken in India, where the company is rolling out 5G services.
Meanwhile, revenue from the India business rose 13 per cent to Rs 26,375 crore. Airtel had a total customer base of 383 million at the end of the latest quarter. The company reported that its mobile revenues grew by 12.4 per cent YoY due to improved realisations as well as strong 4G customer additions during the year.
The company also mentioned that it rolled out 9,200 towers in the quarter to further strengthen network coverage, stating, “our commitment towards providing an unparalleled network experience is reflected in our investments as we added 38.6K towers YoY”.
The consolidated mobile data traffic stood at 15,078 petabytes in the quarter, with a YoY growth of 22.7 per cent.
“We have delivered yet another quarter of strong and competitive growth across all our businesses. We exit the quarter with an industry-leading average revenue per user of Rs 200. Homes, enterprise, and our digital businesses continue to exhibit strong growth momentum, reflecting the resilience and strength of our overall portfolio,” said Bharti Airtel Chief Executive Officer Gopal Vittal.
The company highlighted that digital TV continues to consolidate its strong market position with a 15.9 million customer base at the end of the quarter. A focus on market-specific strategy, coupled with simplified pricing and convergence portfolio, ensured that the business continues to hold its market share, it said.
Furthermore, the company has been scaling its digital capabilities and reported a customer base of 200 million-plus monthly active users across its key digital assets — Airtel Thanks app, new-age DTH connection service Airtel Xstream, and music streaming service Wynk.
“Our digital services span both B2B and B2C and include ads, CpaaS, Airtel IQ, IoT, Cloud, SD-WAN with Airtel finance being the latest addition to leverage the digital capabilities. 1.2 million retailers are transacting and making payments every day on the Mitra app,” the company stated.
