Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a 164 percent year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit at Rs 2,007.9 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022.

In the corresponding quarter last year, the company posted a net profit of Rs Rs 759.2 crore. CNBC-TV18 Polls had predicted a profit of Rs 1,880 crore for the quarter under review.

Quarterly revenue for the operator increased 22.3 percent to Rs 31,500 crore in the January-March quarter, while ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)

rose to Rs 178 from Rs 145 in the previous fiscal, the company said in a statement.

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For the full year FY22, the Sunil Mittal-led telco logged a net profit of Rs 4,255 crore against a loss of Rs 15,084 crore in the previous fiscal (FY21). The consolidated revenues for Q4 2022 at Rs 31,500 crore grew 22.3 percent YoY. Consolidated mobile data traffic at 11,550 PBs in the quarter with a healthy YoY growth of 29.5 percent.

India revenues for Q4 2022 at Rs 22,500 crore, increased by 22.7 percent YoY. Mobile revenues grew by 25.1 percent YoY on account of an increase in ARPU led by a healthy flow-through of tariff revision and strong 4G customer additions during the year.

"We continue to gain a strong share of the 4G customers in the market and surpassed the +200 million mark towards the end of Q4’22. The company has added 21.5 million 4G customers to its network over the last year, an increase of 12.0 percent YoY.

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ARPU continues to be the best in the industry, average data usage per data customer at 18.8 GBs/month and voice usage per customer at 1,083 mins /month," Bharti Airtel said.

Consolidated EBITDA witnessed an increase of 27.1 percent YoY to Rs 15,998 crore in Q4 2022. This led to an improvement in EBITDA margin from 48.9 percent in Q4 2021 to 50.8 percent in Q4 2022 exhibiting continued focus on operational efficiencies. Incremental EBITDA margins across businesses remained healthy, with India's mobile services EBITDA improving from 47.5 percent in Q4 2021 to 50.6 percent in Q4 2022.

Consolidated EBIT increased by 44.9 percent YoY to Rs 7,315 crore. The consolidated net income before exceptional items for the

quarter stands at Rs 1,860 crore. The consolidated net income after exceptional items for the quarter stands at Rs 2,008 crore.

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The net debt-EBITDA ratio (annualized) and including the impact of leases as of March 31, 2022, is at 2.51 times as compared to 2.95 times as of March 31, 2021. We paid additional Rs 8,815 crore towards part prepayment of deferred liabilities for spectrum acquired in 2015.

Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said, "This has been another quarter to cap a full year of consistent and competitive performance across our portfolio.

Our homes and enterprise business continue to exhibit very strong growth momentum, reflecting the resilience of our overall portfolio. Our strong balance sheet and cash flows have enabled us to further repay some of our spectrum liabilities ahead of schedule and improve our leverage."

The results came after the close of the market hours. Shares of Bharti Airtel ended at Rs 706, up by Rs 13.20, or 1.91 percent on the BSE.

First Published:May 17, 2022 4:33 PM IST