Airtel’s Q4 profit zooms as tariff hikes take effect

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel Ltd posted a net profit of ₹2,008 crore for the quarter ended March, a massive 164% growth over the same quarter last year, as the full flow of tariff increase took effect and its 4G customers crossed the 200-million mark. Profit jumped 142% from ₹829 crore in the December quarter.

The Sunil Mittal-promoted carrier recorded a 22.3% growth on-year in consolidated revenue to ₹31,500 crore for the quarter, while revenue from its India business rose 22.7% to ₹22,500 crore.

India’s second-largest telecom operator’s average revenue per user – a key measure of profitability - was ₹178 for the quarter, the highest among its rivals. It was 22.7% more than ₹145 in the same quarter last financial year, and 9.2% more than ₹163 in the December quarter. This led to a more than 25% jump in mobile revenues to ₹17,616 crore, from ₹14,078 crore in the same quarter last year.

“This has been another quarter to cap a full year of consistent and competitive performance across our portfolio. Our consolidated revenues for the quarter grew by 5.5% and Ebitda margins expanded to 50.8%, underscoring our focus on all round delivery. The mobile business revenues were up 9.5% as we saw the full flow through of tariff increase,” said Gopal Vittal, managing director and chief executive officer, India and South Asia.

Airtel and other players raised tariffs last November for prepaid users who form the bulk of the industry’s overall subscriber base. Airtel had said that industry average tariffs should be more than ₹200 per user per month in the near term and more than ₹300 for sustainable financial health of the industry. “Our strong balance sheet and cash flows have enabled us to further repay some of our spectrum liabilities ahead of schedule and improve our leverage,” Vittal said.

The carrier made advance payments of ₹8,815 crore towards deferred liabilities pertaining to 2015 spectrum instalments, due in FY27 and FY28. Over the last four months, Airtel has cleared ₹24,334 crore of its deferred spectrum liabilities, much ahead of scheduled maturities.

The carrier’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) stood at ₹15,998 crore for Q4FY22, up 27% from ₹12,583 crore a year earlier.