Bharti Airtel’s Africa business unit Airtel Africa has reported $133 million (about Rs 1,152 crore) profit for the third quarter ended December 2024, mainly on account of forex gain, the company said on Thursday.
Airtel Africa had posted a loss of $6 million attributable to owners of the company in the same period a year ago.
Its revenue increased by 2 per cent to $1,268 million during the reported quarter from $1,238 million in the December 2023 quarter despite a decline in average revenue per user (ARPU) — a key factor to measure the growth of telecom operators.
“Exceptional items were predominantly driven by the devaluation of the Nigerian naira over the respective periods. In the third quarter of the financial year 2025, we recorded an exceptional gain of $ 144 million ($ 94 million net of tax) relating to the appreciation of the naira and the Tanzanian shilling during the quarter,” Airtel Africa said in a note.
The finance cost of Airtel Africa before exceptional items declined to $ 375 million from $ 408 million on a year-on-year basis.
The total customer base of Airtel Africa grew by 7.9 per cent to $ 163.1 million in the December 2024 quarter from 151.2 million a year ago.
Its ARPU declined by 4.1 per cent to $ 2.7 from $ 2.8 in the December 2023 quarter.
Data customers of Airtel Africa grew by 13.8 per cent to 71.4 million from 62.7 million, and mobile money customer base increased by 18.3 per cent to 44.3 million from 37.5 million on a year-on-year basis.
Commenting, Chief Executive Officer, Sunil Taldar said; “We have delivered an improvement in both the operating and financial performance in the last quarter driven by our refined strategy which is focussed on delivering great customer experience across all touch points. An increasingly important component of this is to provide a best-in-class network, digitise and simplify the customer journey. Our focus on speed and quality execution is enabling us to unlock the substantial opportunities for growth across our markets and business segments, where demand remains significant, resulting in a further acceleration of constant currency revenue growth to 21.3% in the most recent quarter.
“We remain committed to investing for the future by expanding our distribution and network to ensure that we capture this significant growth opportunity on offer. Despite the challenging environment for many of our customers, we continue to see strong demand for our services as we enable connectivity and facilitate access to the digital economy. The scale of data traffic growth across our markets – an increase of 49% over the last year – is testament to the investments we have made and the relentless focus on our strategy to create value for all our stakeholders.
“As we have communicated previously, our cost efficiency programme continues to deliver EBITDA margin improvements, with a further expansion of margins in Q3’25. We continue to focus on further margin improvement. Furthermore, our capital structure remains robust with just 8% of OpCo debt in foreign currency – a substantial improvement over the last year. This, together with continued confidence in the outlook for the business, has enabled the Board to announce a second share buyback programme, which will return up to $100m to shareholders.
“The recent signs of currency stabilisation in some markets and the recent decision from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) regarding tariff adjustments in Nigeria are encouraging and signal a more stable and supportive operating environment. While challenges remain, these developments provide a firm foundation for growth and improved market conditions.”
