Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday posted a net profit of Rs 1,134 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2021.

In the corresponding quarter last year, the company posted a net loss of Rs 763 crore. CNBC-TV18 Poll had predicted a profit of Rs 710 crore for the quarter under review. The company's customer base stands at about 480 million across 16 countries.

Its revenue from operations during July-September 2021 jumped 5.5 percent to Rs 28,326.4 crore, compared with Rs 26,853.6 crore in the year-ago period, Bharti Airtel said in a filing to BSE.

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The company's EBITDA stood at Rs 13,810.5 crore in Q2 September 2021 over Rs 13,189.4 crore in Q1 June 2021. EBITDA margin stood at 49.5 percent in Q2 September 2021 as compared to 49.1 percent in Q1 June 2021.

The consolidated revenues for the September quarter stood at Rs 28,326 crore grew 18.8 percent YoY on a comparable basis and 13.0 percent YoY on a reported basis. Consolidated mobile data traffic at 10,943 PBs in the quarter with a healthy YoY growth of 47.8 percent.

India revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 19,890 crore increased by 18.3 percent YoY on a comparable basis and 10.4 percent YoY on a reported basis. Mobile revenues grew by 20.3 percent YoY on a comparable basis on account of an increase in ARPU and strong 4G customer addition.

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ARPU for the quarter came in at Rs 153 as compared to Rs 143 in the same period last year on a comparable basis, validating our strategy of focusing on quality customers.

Digital TV witnessed revenue growth of 5.7 percent YoY and continued to strengthen its leadership position with an 18.0 million customer base at the end of the quarter, the company said. The digital services offerings of Airtel continue to remain robust with a healthy engaged customer base of over 180 million MAUs across our key digital assets – Thanks, Wynk, Xstream.

There are over 1.2 million retailers transacting and making payments every day on Mitra App. During the quarter, Airtel Payments Bank turned profitable with a strong total customer base of over 115 million and a highly engaged Monthly Transacting Users (MTU) base of over 31 million.

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Consolidated EBITDA witnessed an increase of 24.5 percent YoY to Rs 14,018 crore in the second quarter. EBITDA expansion was broad-based across the portfolio and the portfolio remains very well balanced with India non-mobile and Africa business contributing 17.7 percent and 29.5 percent respectively and India mobile contributing 52.8 percent.

This led to an improvement in EBITDA margin from 44.9 percent in Q2’21 to 49.5 percent in Q2’22. Incremental EBITDA margins across businesses remained healthy, with India mobile services EBITDA improving from 42.6 percent in Q2’21 to 49.2 percent in Q2’22.

Consolidated EBIT increased by 45.4 percent YoY to Rs 5,756 crore. The consolidated net income before exceptional items for the quarter stands at Rs 594 crore. The consolidated net income after exceptional items for the quarter stands at Rs 1,134 crore.

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The net debt-EBITDA ratio (annualized) and including the impact of leases as of September 30, 2021, is at 2.96 times as compared to 3.18 times as of September 30, 2020.

In a statement, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said, "We welcome the reforms announced by the government for the telecom industry and believe this will add to the ability of the industry to invest so as to drive India’s digital story. We hope the reforms momentum will continue and all longstanding issues impacting the industry will be addressed. We continue to maintain a high degree of financial flexibility. As a result, we have now achieved Nil bank debt for our India businesses."

"During the quarter gone by, we sustained our operational excellence with a healthy 5.5 percent sequential growth in consolidated revenues and expansion of EBITDA margin to 49.5 percent," he said.

The results came after the close of the market hours. Shares of Bharti Airtel ended at Rs 712.90, up by Rs 0.60, or 0.084 percent on the BSE.

(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)

First Published:Nov 2, 2021 3:57 PM IST