Bharti Airtel Q1 revenue down 8.6%; profit down 73.5%

Bharti Airtel Q1 revenue was down 8.6 per cent to reach Rs. 20,080 crore whereas net income was down 73.5 per cent to reach Rs. 97 crore.

Consolidated mobile data traffic at 2,236 Bn MBs in the quarter has registered a robust Y-o-Y growth of 328%.

India revenues for Q1’19 at Rs 14,930 crore have declined by 7 per cent Y-o-Y on an underlying basis. Mobile segment continues to be impacted by aggressive industry pricing and has witnessed Y-o-Y de-growth of 11 per cent.

Mobile data traffic has quadrupled to 2,151 Bn MBs in the quarter as compared to 472 Bn MBs in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile broadband customers increased by 75.2% to 85.7 Mn from 48.9 Mn in the corresponding quarter last year.

In constant currency terms, Africa revenues grew by 13.9% Y-o-Y led by strong growth in data and Airtel money transaction value.

Mobile data traffic has grown by 75% to 78 Bn MBs in the quarter as compared to 44 Bn MBs in the same quarter last year. Data customers increased by 45.2% to 26.4 Mn from 18.2 Mn in the corresponding quarter last year.

Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia said, “Led by our successful bundles, content partnerships and handset upgrade programs, our mobile data traffic surged 355% on a YoY basis. Non-mobile portfolio also continues to witness healthy growth on back of investments in home passes and HD content. Aggressively expanding our 4G capacities and continuing to offer highest data speeds to customers remains a key priority for us, and towards this end, Q1’19 has seen our highest quarterly capex spends of Rs 7,887 Crore”

Raghunath Mandava, MD and CEO, Africa said, “Airtel Africa’s Gross Revenue grew by 14% on a Y-o-Y basis. Data traffic grew by 75%, voice minutes increased by 44% and Airtel Money throughput grew by 43% on a Y-o-Y basis. Consequently, EBITDA margin has expanded by 7.8% Y-o-Y. Q1 EBITDA margin is 36.4%. With 4G services live across 9 countries and continuing up-gradation of capacities across the OPCOs, we remain best placed to capture the ever growing data market.”