Airtel Africa Reports $74m Pre-tax Profit In Q1

Airtel Africa Plc has posted a $74 million profit before tax for the first quarter (Q1) ended June 30, 2024.

The telecom company’s results released on the Nigerian Exchange yesterday showed a rebound to profitability when compared to the prior year.

The company’s profit before tax grew by 133.6 per cent from a loss position of $221 million in Q1, 2023 to $74 million in the period under review. Profit after tax rose by 120.3 per cent to $31 million from a net loss of $151 million.

The company noted that, the net profit of $31 million 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

Basic earnings per share stood at 0.2 cents compared to negative of 4.5 cents in the prior period.

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Revenue declined by 16.1 per cent to $1.156 billion as against $1.377 billion. Across the Group mobile services revenue grew by 17.4 per cent and Mobile Money revenue grew by 28.4 per cent in constant currency.

Also, the total customer base grew by 8.6 per cent to 155.4 million. Data customer penetration increased by 13.4 per cent to 64.4 million. Data usage per customer increased by 25.1 per cent to 6.2 GBs, with smartphone penetration increasing 4.7 per cent to reach 41.7 per cent.

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 per cent from 49.5 per cent in Q1, 2024 and 46.5 per cent in Q4 ended March 2024.

However, constant currency EBITDA increased 11.3 per cent whilst reported currency EBITDA declined by 23.3 per cent to $523 million.

On the company’s performance, chief executive officer of Airtel Africa, Sunil Taldar said that, “the continued revenue growth momentum once again reflects the resilient demand for our services, with sustained growth in our customer base and usage. Our superior execution enables us to capture these opportunities, whilst retaining our reputation as a cost leader across the industry.”

He noted that, “a key priority for us is to look for new opportunities to further grow our business especially in the enterprise, fibre and data centre businesses across our footprint in Africa.

“We will build on the strong foundation established over many years to deliver on these new business opportunities. Most importantly, our emphasis is on significantly improving customer experience by simplifying customer journeys and providing best in class network experience to our customers, whilst remaining focused on driving efficiencies across the business.”

Taldar explained that, “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. The growth opportunity across our markets remains compelling and we continue to focus on margin improvement as indicated in our full year 2024 results.”