Bharti Airtel Q3 Results: PAT misses Street estimates, Rs 259 ARPU meets mark

Bharti Airtel on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 6,630.5 crore for the quarter ended December 31, marking a sequential decline of 2.4 per cent. That was lower than analysts' expectations. The New Delhi-headquartered company said its net income before exceptional items was at Rs 6,920 crore.

The private sector telecom service provider's third-quarter revenue stood at Rs 53,981.6 crore, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 3.5 per cent driven by continued growth in the domestic market and a solid performance in Africa, according to a regulatory filing.

The company's top and bottom lines fell short of analysts' expectations.

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According to Zee Business research, Bharti Airtel was estimated to log a net profit of Rs 7,726 crore with Rs 53,815 crore in revenue for the October-December period.

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The telecom firm's consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at Rs 31,144 crore, a 4.1 per cent sequential increase, and its EBITDA margin stood at 57.7 per cent.

In its India business, the EBITDA stood at Rs 23,676 crore and EBITDA margin at 60.4 per cent in Q3, as against Rs 23,204 crore and 60.0 per cent in Q2.

According to Zee Business research, Bharti Airtel's third-quarter EBITDA was expected at Rs 30,649 crore and margin at 57 per cent.

The telecom service provider said its strong operational performance was driven by portfolio premiumisation and sharp execution.

Bharti Airtel Q3 ARPU meets analyst expectations

The company's mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) -- a key measure of income for mobile service providers -- increased to Rs 259 from Rs 245 in the year-ago period. Zee Business analysts had pegged the ARPU at Rs 258.

Q3 marked another strong quarter, underpinning the company's strategy of a diversified and resilient portfolio, said Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chairman, Bharti Airtel. "One of the reasons for our stepped-up performance in Africa is the deployment of our homegrown digital stack that has sharpened our go-to market excellence, the secret sauce of Airtel," he added.

Bharti Airtel's India business registered revenue of Rs 39,226 crore for Q3, up 1.4 per cent sequentially, aided by continued premiumisation in the mobile segment, strong momentum in the homes segment and steady performance from Airtel Business.

Its India mobile revenue increased 9.1 per cent on a year-on-year basis, driven by ARPU improvement and strong growth in smartphone data customers. Its homes business delivered yet another quarter of solid performance with revenues growing 32.6 per cent.

Net customer additions, said the company, was at a record high of 1,159 K in Q3, driven by deeper coverage and market expansion.

The company's smartphone data customers increased by 5.2 Mn sequentially, accounting for 79 per cent of its total mobile customers. Its postpaid net adds were steady at 0.62 million, it noted.

Bharti Airtel said mobile data consumption increased 29.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis to 29.8 GB per customer per month.

Bharti Airtel shares

Earlier on Thursday, Bharti Airtel shares ended 1.7 per cent lower at Rs 1,992.1 apiece on BSE.

At the current level, the Bharti Airtel stock has declined 5.6 per cent so far this year, worse than a 1.9 per cent decline in the Nifty50.