Bharti Airtel has recently revealed the growth of Airtel Africa revenue in recent quarters. Airtel Africa, which has presence in 14 African nations, is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO).
Airtel Africa’s customer base rose 19.5 percent to 94.1 million in the September quarter of 2018.
Customer churn has remained flat at 4.8 percent. Total minutes on the Airtel Africa network grew 36.3 percent to 52 billion.
Data customers of Airtel Africa increased by 6.6 million to 27.1 million from 20.5 million in the same quarter last year.
Data customers represent 28.8 percent of the total customer base, as compared to 26.1 percent in the corresponding quarter last year.
The total MBs on the network grew at 53.3 percent to 88.8 billion MBs from 57.9 billion MBs. Data usage per customer rose 12 percent to 1,113 MBs as compared to 994 MBs in the same quarter last year.
Airtel Money customer base increased 39.8 percent to 12.9 million from 9.3 million. Value of transactions on the Airtel money platform has grown 30.8 percent to $6,263 million in the current quarter. Airtel Money revenue rose 9.5 percent to $55 million.
Airtel Africa had 20,060 network towers at end of the quarter as compared to 18,926 network towers. Airtel Africa has rolled out 4G in 14 countries and 4G across 10 countries. Airtel Africa has 15,280 mobile broadband towers. Airtel Africa has 26,338 mobile broadband base stations.
Airtel Africa’s investments in data capacities have led to higher Opex at $360 million from $339 million.
EBITDA of Airtel Africa increased to $305 million from $246 million. EBITDA margin rose by 3.9 percent to reach 37.1 percent for the quarter. EBIT was $197 million as compared to $127 million.
Airtel Africa made $106 million investment towards capital expenditure – focusing on data capacities and network modernization.
Meanwhile, Airtel in a statement on Monday said that Airtel Africa’s IPO preparations are proceeding as per plan and there is no change in plans.
“New board is in place with new investor’s representatives and we remain very confident about the IPO process,” Airtel said denying a news report by Bloomberg. The report said the IPO will be delayed.
Baburajan K
