Bharti Airtel records 15% revenue growth in Africa

February 5, 2013 by Dayo Oketola

 

 

 

Bharti Airtel logo
| credits: www.fonearena.com

Bharti Airtel Limited has recorded 15 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, a statement on Monday said.

The growth, according to the statement, is supported by customer-base growth of 21 per cent, voice traffic increase of 42 per cent, and non-voice revenue growth of 85 per cent.

Voice usage per customer, according to the statement, has grown year-on-year by 15 per cent from 125 minutes to 144 minutes.

These were contained in the company’s audited consolidated IFRS results for the third quarter and nine months ended, December 31, 2012.

Revenues in the third quarter on a consolidated basis at 20,239 crore grew by 9.5 per cent over the corresponding period last year, led by strong growth of 70 per cent in mobile Internet in India, 29 per cent in Digital TV, 20 per cent in ‘Airtel business’ (B2B) and 15 per cent in Africa.

The company said the new activation processes and improved retention strategies in India had helped reduce monthly churn to 5.9 per cent from 8.5 per cent in the previous quarter.

The Average Revenue per User, according to the statement, has improved to 185, a sequential improvement of eight in the quarter.

The consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation margin is at 30.6 per cent. The second quarter margins at 31.3 per cent benefited from a favourable judicial outcome in respect of certain inter-connect agreements.

The Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel Limited, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, said the consolidated net income at 284 crore was impacted by higher depreciation and amortisation cost (316 crore), net interest costs (`284 crore), forex fluctuation losses (261 crore) and tax provisions (109 crore).

Consolidated Operating Free Cash Flows for the quarter were at 3,801 crore, he added

The net debt – equity ratio was at 1.25 and USD Net Debt-EBITDA ratio was at 2.55.

Mittal said, “Market conditions have been challenging in recent quarters due to pricing pressures and rising input costs, which have put enormous pressure on the sector and consequently the margins.

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