Bharti Airtel reports 119Cr profit against loss expectation, announces interim dividend of Rs 2.5 per share
New Delhi : Telecom major Bharti Airtel today reported Rs 118.8 crore consolidated net profit in the quarter ended September, in a major surprise for the market, which was expecting a net loss to the tune of Rs 110-990 crore.
The consolidated revenues for Q2’19 at Rs 20,422 crore grew 0.5% Y-o-Y (reported drop of 6.2%) on an underlying basis (viz. adjusted for India domestic & international termination rate reduction and divested operating units). Consolidated mobile data traffic at 2,758 Bn MBs in the quarter has registered a healthy Y-o-Y growth of225%.
India revenues for Q2’19 at Rs 14,920 crore have declined by 3.6% Y-o-Y (declined 10.9% on reported) on an underlying basis. Mobile revenues have witnessed a Y-o-Y de-growth of 7.2% on an underlying basis led bycontinued ARPU down-trading impacted by competitive pricing pressures. India other businesses continue towitness a healthy Y-o-Y growth. Digital TV revenue has crossed Rs 10 Bn mark with a 9.3% growth and AirtelBusiness has witnessed a growth of 22.8% on an underlying basis. Mobile data traffic has more than tripled to 2,660 Bn MBs in the quarter as compared to 784 Bn MBs in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile 4G datacustomers increased by 132.2% to 65.7 Mn from 28.3 Mn in the corresponding quarter last year.
In constant currency (1st Mar’18) terms, Africa revenues grew by 10.8% Y-o-Y led by strong growth in data and Airtel money transaction value. Mobile data traffic has grown by 53% to 89 Bn MBs in the quarter as compared to58 Bn MBs in the same quarter last year. Data customers increased by 32.1% to 27.1 Mn from 20.5 Mn in the corresponding quarter last year. Active Airtel Money customer base increased to 12.9 Mn, boosting the total transaction value on Airtel Money platform by 31% to $ 6.3 billion. Our continuous cost control initiatives have resulted in improvement of EBITDA margin by 3.9% Y-o-Y and stands at 37.1%.
Consolidated EBITDA at Rs 6,343 crore declined 20.7% Y-o-Y. Consolidated EBITDA margin decreased by 5.7% to 31.1% in the quarter as compared to 36.8% in the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated EBIT dropped by 67.3% Y-o-Y to Rs 1,076 crore. The Consolidated Net Income after exceptional items for the quarter stands at Rs 119 crore (Q1’19: Rs 97 crore) compared to Rs 343 crore in corresponding quarter last year.
The Company’s Board has declared an interim dividend of Rs 2.5 per share, which is a complete pass-through of dividend received from its subsidiary