Airtel Africa swings to profit despite weaker Nigerian naira’s impact
Airtel Africa Plc reported a profit after tax of $31 million for the quarter ended June 30, compared with a loss of $151 million a year earlier.
The telecommunications company said on Thursday that its revenue in constant currency grew by 19% in the first quarter of 2025, driven by 33.4% growth in Nigeria and 22.3% growth in East Africa.
It said reported currency revenues declined by 16.1% to $1,156m, reflecting the impact of currency devaluation, particularly in Nigeria.
“A substantial increase in fuel prices across our markets and the lower contribution of Nigeria to the group after the naira devaluation contributed to a decline in EBITDA margins to 45.3% from 49.5% in Q1’24 and 46.5% in Q4’24. However, constant currency EBITDA increased 11.3% whilst reported currency EBITDA declined by 23.3% to $523m,” it said in a statement.
The telco said profit after tax was impacted by $80 million of exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses (net of tax), arising from the further depreciation in the Nigerian naira during the quarter.
“The continued revenue growth momentum once again reflects the resilient demand for our services, with sustained growth in our customer base and usage,” Sunil Taldar, its chief executive officer, said. “We have initiated a comprehensive cost optimisation programme across the group.”
The company said it now has zero HoldCo debt following the full repayment of the $550m bond in May 2024. “In total, 86% of our market debt is now in local currency, having paid down $828m of foreign currency debt over the last year.”
“A strong capital structure is critical to enabling these ambitions and future proofing our ambitious growth targets. During the quarter, we fully repaid the outstanding debt due at the HoldCo and we remain committed to further reduce foreign currency exposure across the group to limit the impact of currency devaluation on our business,” Taldar.
Airtel’s total customer base grew by 8.6% to 155.4 million.
“Data customer penetration continues to rise, driving a 13.4% increase in data customers to 64.4 million. Data usage per customer increased by 25.1% to 6.2 GBs, with smartphone penetration increasing 4.7% to reach 41.7%.”
