Telecom major Bharti Airtel reported a massive decline in its consolidated net profit on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in its fourth quarter (Q4) earnings on Tuesday. The telco logged a net profit of Rs 2,071.6 crore in the January-March quarter in the 2023-24 financial year (FY24) against a net profit of Rs 3,005.6 crore in the last quarter of the previous 2022-23 fiscal year (FY23), registering a drop of 31 per cent.
At the same time, the firm witnessed a 4.4 per cent jump in its revenue for Q4FY24 on a year-to-year basis. It posted a revenue of Rs 37,599 crore for the quarter under review against its Q4 revenue of Rs 36,009 crore for FY23. The firm via a regulatory filing noted that this revenue was impacted by currency devaluation in Africa.
The company saw an addition of 7.8 million smartphone customers and logged an ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) of Rs 209 in the quarter under review, against Rs 193 clocked in the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
This growth in customer base was led by a consistent focus on gaining quality customers and mix improvement. The firm also declared a dividend of Rs 8 per equity share and said, “For FY24, the Board has recommended a final dividend of Rs. 8 per fully paid-up equity share of face value of Rs. 5 each and Rs. 2 per partly paid-up equity share of face value of Rs. 5 each (paid-up Rs. 2.00 per equity share).”
The India business of the company reported a quarterly revenue of Rs 28,513 crore, marking a growth of 12.9 per cent on a YoY basis. This boost was attributed to a robust and consistent performance seen across the product portfolio of the firm.
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Elaborating on the performance, Gopal Vittal, MD, Bharti Airtel, said, “We ended the year on a strong note with consistent performance across all businesses, both on customer metrics as well as financial parameters. India revenue (adjusted for Beetel) grew by 1.7 per cent with EBITDA margin expanding to 54.1 per cent, despite one day less in the quarter. Consolidated performance was impacted primarily by the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira."
"We added 7.8 million smart phone customers and delivered an industry leading ARPU of Rs. 209. Our relentless focus on improving customer experience has resulted in 20% churn reduction during the quarter. Our simple and clear strategy coupled with razor-sharp focus on execution enabled us to end the quarter with life-time high market share across all businesses. Our efforts on digitizing Airtel are now gathering velocity and is being visibly felt across all parts of our operations. At the same time, our return on capital employed continues to remain low due to the absence of tariff repair in the industry," Vittal added.