Bharti Airtel has reported revenue of INR 206,568 million during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018-19 as compared with INR 194,698 million in the same period year ago.
Airtel has posted revenue of INR 810,714 million in fiscal 2018-19 against INR 828,876 million in fiscal 2017-18.
Airtel generated mobile service revenue of INR 106,323 million (INR 103,532 million) from India and INR 55,115 million (INR 47,314 million) from Africa during the fourth quarter of fiscal.
The growth in India mobile services revenue indicates that the telecom operations have started stabilizing in India despite tough competition. Airtel is the largest telecom operator in India in terms of annual revenue.
Airtel’s mobile service revenue reached INR 415,540 million (INR 462,639 million) in India and INR 215,028 million (INR 191,073 million) from Africa during the fiscal ended March 31, 2019.
Airtel has generated revenue of INR 30,039 million (INR 28,282 million) from Airtel Business that targets enterprises, INR 5,536 million (INR 6,042 million) from Airtel Homes that targets broadband customers and INR 10,505 million (INR 9,585 million) from Airtel Digital, the DTH business.
Bharti Airtel’s total expenditure (Opex) reached INR 139,706 million (INR 124,706 million) in Q4 and INR 549,613 million (INR 525,597 million) in fiscal 2018-19. Out of this, network operations expenditure reached INR 59,622 million (INR 48,071 million) in Q4 and INR 223,900 million (INR 197,520 million) in fiscal 2018-19.
Bharti Airtel did not reveal its Capex related details this time. The company is aggressively expanding its mobile Internet network across the country as part of the strategy to improve its data ARPU.
Airtel Africa
Airtel Africa’s customer base reached 98.9 million in 2019 as compared to 89.3 million in previous year, an increase of 10.7 percent.
Customer churn for the year has increased to 5 percent vs 4.4 percent in the previous year mainly due to introduction of stringent regulations around KYC.
Total minutes on network rose 29.9 percent to 207.3 billion as compared to 159.5 billion in the previous year.
Airtel Africa’s data customers increased by 5.1 million to 30 million as compared to 24.9 million in the previous year. Data customers represent 30.4 percent of the total customer base, as compared to 27.9 percent in the previous year.
The total MBs on the network grew by 65.3 percent to 392.6 billion MBs compared to 237.5 billion MBs in the previous year. Average data usage per customer during the year was 1,192 MBs as compared to 954 MBs in the previous year, an increase of 25 percent.
The customer base using the Airtel Money platform increased by 24 percent to 14.2 million as compared to 11.5 million in the previous year. Total value of transactions on the Airtel money platform has grown 30.5 percent to $26.2 billion as compared to $20 billion in the previous year. Airtel Money revenue increased 59.7 percent to $243.3 million as compared to $152.4 million in the previous year.
Airtel Africa has 21,059 network towers vs 19,731 in the previous year. Airtel Africa has rolled out 3G in 14 countries and 4G across 11 countries.
Airtel Africa has 16,426 mobile broadband towers and 32,501 mobile broadband base stations at the end of the year.
Capital expenditure of Airtel Africa was $630 million, mainly due to investment in mobile data capacities and network modernization.
Airtel Africa revenues grew 11.6 percent to $3,153 million. Airtel Africa Opex for the year was $1,160 million as compared to $1,103 million in the previous year. EBITDA was $1,365 million with EBITDA margin of 43.3 percent as compared to $1,108 million with EBITDA margin of 39.2 percent in the previous year.
