CHENNAI: Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 284 crore for the quarter ended June 2021, the first quarter of the current financial year (Q1FY22), while its revenues for the period came in at Rs 26,854 crore. The company had recorded a massive loss of Rs 15,933 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year (Q1FY21) and a revenue of Rs 23,290 crore.
In terms of revenue, the company has recorded a 15.3% year-on-year growth, with officials stating that adjusted for the removal of the Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC) mechanism (stopped from January 1 this year) revenues have grown 21%. While increased costs saw its profits nearly halved on a sequential basis from Rs 759 crore in the previous quarter, the company has registered a marginal increase in the key average revenue per user (ARPU) metric.
ARPU rose to Rs 146 during Q1FY22 from Rs 145 in previous quarter and Rs 138 in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The company’s earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortisation (EBIDTA) margin also improved sequentially from 48.9% to 49.1%.
However, the company’s overall expenses rose 3.4% from the previous quarter to Rs 13,873.3 crore while finance costs increased 9.5% to Rs 4,225.7 crore. Its license fee/spectrum charges also grew 5.8% to Rs 2,645.5 crore.
“While our wireless revenue was impacted by the Covid lockdown induced slowdown in terms of device shipments and a financial squeeze at the lower end of the market, our overall performance reflected the resilience and strength of our portfolio.
We added ~ 5.1 Mn 4G customers during the quarter and our enterprise business in India continued to deliver strongly. Our Homes business grew by just about 13% over last year and added 285,000 customers in the quarter, the highest ever,” said Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel.
Its Africa subsidiary, Airtel Africa Ltd, saw its revenues rising 7.1% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 8,184 crore, while profit after tax declined 7.8% to Rs 1,046.9 crore.
Floor prices necessary to avert crisis: COAI
Telecos’ body COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) on Tuesday pitched for the fixing of floor tariffs for data, stating that it has become a “critical issue”. “In the last few years, fixation of floor prices has become a critical issue and is need of the hour today with telecom industry going through major financial stress,” said S P Kochhar, director-general of COAI.