Bharti Airtel slips 3% as Q2 nos. miss street expectations; ARPU at Rs 233

Bharti Airtel share price: Telecom giant Bharti Airtel shares dropped as much as 3.22 per cent to hit an intraday low of Rs 1,610 per share on Tuesday, October 29, 2024. 

 

The drop in Bharti Airtel share price came after the company posted September quarter of financial year 2025 (Q2FY25) results, which fell short of Bloomberg estimates. 

 

Despite not meeting the expectations, the company’s profit zoomed 168 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 3,593 crore, as opposed to Rs 1,340 crore in the same quarter a year ago (Q2FY24). The spike in profit came on the back of higher telecom tariffs imposed in early July.

 

 

Sequentially, the profit slipped 13.6 per cent, from Rs 4,159 crore in the preceding quarter (Q1FY25) as against Bloomberg’s estimate.

 

The company’s consolidated revenue from operations jumped to Rs 41,473 crore – up 12 per cent Y-o-Y, up 7.7 per cent Q-o-Q, driven by strong momentum in India and sustained constant currency growth in Africa.

 

The company’s consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) soared to Rs 22,021 crore. Its Ebitda margin stood at 53.1 per cent.

 

“Our balance sheet remains solid, supported by cash generation and continued deleveraging. During the quarter, we prepaid another tranche of Rs 8,465 crore of high cost spectrum dues.  At the same time, we believe that industry needs further tariff repair for sustained investments given that ROCE for India is still only 11 per cent,” said Gopal Vittal, MD of Bharti Airtel 

 

Apart from that, the company’s average revenue per user (ARPU), a key performance metric for telecom firms, rose 14.7 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 233, up from the Rs 203 in Q2FY24.

 

“We delivered another quarter of solid performance, with India revenue growing 8.7 per cent sequentially. Africa maintained strong revenue growth momentum as well with 7.7 per cent constant currency growth. The flow thru of tariff repair is in-line with our expectation on ARPU increase and SIM consolidation. We reported industry leading ARPU of Rs 233,” Vittal added.

 

Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 550 million customers in 15 countries across India and Africa. 

 

The company also has its presence in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through its associate entities. The company’s  retail portfolio includes high speed 4G/5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and video, digital payments and financial services. 

 

At 9:53 AM, shares of Bharti Airtel were trading 2.13 per cent lower at Rs 1,628.20 per share. In comparison, BSE Sensex was trading 0.48 per cent lower at 79,619.67 levels.