Airtel Africa reports 67.6% quarterly profit rise

Airtel Africa Plc has posted an operating profit of $352m for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, up 67.6 percent in reported currency and 73.9 percent in constant currency.

The telecommunication company said on Thursday that its revenue for the period grew by 30.7 percent to $1.11bn, with constant currency growth of 33.1 percent.

It said in a statement that the revenue growth partially benefitted from a weakened quarter in the prior year during the peak of COVID-19 restrictions across the region.

“Strong revenue growth was recorded across all regions: Nigeria up 38.2 percent, East Africa up 32.8 percent and Francophone Africa up 24.9 percent; and across key services, with revenues for voice up 26.0 percent, data up 37.4 percent and mobile money up 53.7 percent,” it said.

The telco’s profit after tax more than doubled to $142m, up 148.7 percent.

It said stable net finance costs more than offset the increase in tax charges due to increased profits.

Its customer base grew by 8.4 percent to 120.8 million, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 14.8 percent) and mobile money services (customer base up 24.6 percent).

Airtel Africa said the slowdown in customer base growth was due to new SIM registration regulations in Nigeria.

The Chief Executive Officer, Raghunath Mandava, said, “Our Q1’22 results have been very strong, with reported growth of 30.7 percent in revenue and 42.4 percent in underlying EBITDA, with constant currency growth of 33.1 percent and 46.2 percent respectively.

“We have posted strong double-digit growth across voice (26.0 percent), data (37.4 percent) and mobile money (53.7 percent), and across all our regions. Sub-Saharan Africa is now experiencing a third wave of the pandemic. Governments are implementing balanced measures of lockdowns and restrictions. But vaccinations levels remain very low.”