BHARTI AIRTEL IMPROVES PERFORMANCE IN AFRICA WITH 6.0% YEAR ON YEAR REVENUE GROWTH

Bharti Airtel has announced that Africa business performance has improved and underlying revenues grew by 6.0 percent year on year, the highest in last nine quarters.
According to the audited consolidated Ind-AS results for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016, data revenues at $ 153 million grew by 24.0 percent year on year, led by increase in Data customer base by 21.3 percent and traffic by 91.0 percent. Data ARPU flat at $ 2.9 compare to the corresponding quarter last year.
Data revenues now contribute to 16.7 percent of overall Africa revenues vis-à-vis 14.2 percent in the corresponding quarter last year.
Company’s continuous focus on costs and efficiencies has resulted underlying EBITDA margin improvement by 4.9 percent year on year to 24.5%.  Active Airtel Money customer base at 8.8 million, increasing the total transaction value on Airtel Money platform by 32.8 percent to $ 4.0 billion.
 “Underlying Africa revenue growth for the quarter accelerated to 6.0% percent year on year, the highest in last 9 quarters. Our efforts to improve the quality of customer acquisitions have resulted in reduction in customer churn to 4.9 percent from 6.0 percent. Data consumption and revenues have grown by 91.0 percent and 24.0 percent year on year respectively, led by stronger data networks. Our strong focus on cost control has led to a significant underlying EBITDA margin expansion of 4.9 percent year on year, which now stands at 24.5 pecent. Africa is now generating positive free cash and is PBT positive in constant currency,” Raghunath Mandava, MD and CEO, Africa said in a statement.
India revenues for Q3’17 at Rs 18,013 crore grew by 1.8 percent year on year. Slowdown in Mobile revenue growth primarily due to free voice and data offering by a new operator. India other businesses have witnessed healthy growth e.g. 17.7 percent in Digital TV, 12.5 percent in Airtel Business and 10.8 percent in Homes on year on year basis.
Mobile data revenues at Rs 3,087 crore de-grew by 3.0 percent year on year. Mobile Broadband customers increased by 22.0 percent to 37.7 Mn from 30.9 Mn in the corresponding quarter last year.
Mobile Data revenues now contribute to 22.8 percent of Mobile India revenues vis-à-vis 23.1 percent in the corresponding quarter last year
On his part, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said the quarter has seen turbulence due to the continued predatory pricing by a new operator. The present termination costs at 14 paise which are well below cost has resulted in a tsunami of minutes terminating into our network. This has led to an unprecedented year on year revenue decline for the industry, pressure on margins and a serious impact on the financial health of the sector.
“At the same time our commitment to provide a superior experience to our customers has led to revenue market share crossing a lifetime high of 33 percent. Airtel revenues grew by 1.8 percent year on year and our non-mobile businesses continue to grow at a healthy clip and now contribute a sizable 24 percent of our total revenues,” he said