Bharti Airtel Q2: Net Profit Drops 37%, Revenue Increases To Rs 37,043.8 Crore

The telecom services provider reported a net profit of Rs 1,340.7 crore in the quarter ended September in 2023-24, against Rs 2,145.2 crore logged in the second quarter of the 2022-23 fiscal year.

The company attributed the impact on it’s consolidated revenue to the Nigerian Naira devaluation flow-through in the current quarter.

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Bharti Airtel posted a fall of over 37 per cent in it’s consolidated net profit in it’s financial earnings for the second quarter (Q2) of the current fiscal year on Tuesday. The telecom services provider reported a net profit of Rs 1,340.7 crore in the quarter ended September in 2023-24 (FY24), against Rs 2,145.2 crore logged in the second quarter of the 2022-23 fiscal year (FY23), revealed via an exchange filing.

The firm via an exchange filing revealed that the revenue from operations gained more than 7 per cent to Rs 37,043.8 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, against Rs 34,526.8 crore logged in the same quarter a year earlier. 

The company attributed the impact on it’s consolidated revenue to the Nigerian Naira devaluation flow-through in the current quarter. Further, the telecom firm said the massive decline was caused by the tax and interest provision with regard to the recent Supreme Court ruling about the variable license fee payable to the Department of Telecommunication. 

The company reported a standalone EBITDA of Rs 19,665 crore for the quarter under review, up by 11 per cent against Rs 17,721.2 crore logged in the corresponding quarter a year earlier. EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) is often used by companies as an alternative to net income to better understand their finances.

About the mobile services in India, the company said, “We offer postpaid, pre-paid, roaming, internet, and other value-added services. Our distribution channel is spread across 1.2 Mn outlets with network presence in 7,916 census and 806,201 non-census towns and villages in India covering approximately 96.0% of the country’s population.”

India revenue for the firm increased by 11 per cent to Rs 26,994.7 crore in the quarter under review, as compared to Rs 24,333.3 crore in the same quarter a year earlier.

Commenting on the performance, Gopal Vittal, Bharti Airtel’s managing director, said, “This has been yet another quarter of solid revenue growths and improved margins. Our India revenue continues to gain momentum and grew sequentially by 2.4%. Our consolidated revenue however was impacted by the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira. Consolidated EBITDA margins expanded to 53.1% supported by a strong war on Waste program. We added 7.7 million 4G/5G net adds and exited the quarter with an industry leading ARPU of 203. Our Postpaid and Homes businesses continued their strong growth trajectory as we added the highest ever net adds in both these segments in any single quarter. Our performance is under pinned by a simple and consistent strategy of focusing on quality customers and delivering the best experience to them in a seamless digital way.”