Airtel Africa’s Q3 Profit Down 21% Year-On-Year

Airtel Africa posted revenue of $883 million, up 14.2% year-on-year from $783 million, largely driven by improved performance in the ‘Rest of Africa’ region, supported by solid results in Nigeria and East Africa, the company said.

“This is now the eighth consecutive quarter that we have delivered double digit revenue growth and EBITDA margin expansion in constant currency,” Raghunath Mandava, chief executive officer, Airtel Africa, said in a statement.

The revenue increase is significant for the African arm of Bharti Airtel, which battles a bruising tariff war with rival Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd at home turf.

It also comes at a time when Bharti Airtel and other operators are emerging from an adverse court verdict which mandates telecom companies to pay dues totalling over Rs. 1 trillion to the Indian government.

The 24 October Supreme Court order that ended the 14-year legal battle between telcos and the department of telecommunication (DoT) has asked Bharti Airtel to cough up Rs. 35,586 crore in dues, straining its already precarious financial situation in India.

The telecom company currently awaits Supreme Court’s hearing on its modification plea filed earlier this month which seeks that the operators be allowed to negotiate a sustainable payment schedule with the department.

Bharti Airtel will declare its December quarter earnings for India operations on 4 February.

Africa has proved to be a beacon of hope for the company, which is faced with a struggling India business.

Airtel Africa’s customer base stands at 107.1 million, out of which 32.9 million were data users. Its average revenue per user (Arpu) was $2.8 in the December quarter.

Airtel Africa is the holding firm for Bharti Airtel’s operations in 14 countries.―Livemint