Bharti Airtel's Q2 profit drops 38%, ARPU at Rs. 203

By Dwaipayan Roy

Oct 31, 2023

07:14 pm

What's the story

Bharti Airtel experienced a 37.5% drop in consolidated net profit during the quarter ending in September, plummeting to Rs. 1,340.7 crore from Rs. 2,145.2 crore in the same quarter last year. The telecom company's operational revenue saw a 7.28% increase, reaching Rs. 37,043.8 crore compared to Rs. 34,526.8 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Details

EBITDA rises by 10.96%, but margin contracts

The corporation's EBITDA grew by 10.96%, reaching Rs. 19,665 crore from Rs. 17,721.2 crore in the same quarter last year. Despite this, the EBITDA margin shrank by 20 basis points to 53.1%. Analysts had anticipated EBITDA to hit Rs. 19,956.6 crore, a 13.4% year-on-year increase. On a consolidated basis, total minutes of usage on the network during the quarter amounted to 1,281 billion, an 8.5% increase compared to 1,180 billion in the corresponding quarter in 2022.

What Next?

Revenue from India operations increases by 10.9%

Bharti Airtel's India revenues, which include mobile, home services, and digital TV services segments, reached Rs. 26,994.7 crore for the quarter. This marks a 10.9% increase compared to Rs. 24,333.3 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile revenues rose by 11% YoY to Rs. 20,952.1 crore, while EBITDA for the quarter amounted to Rs. 11,503.9 crore compared to Rs. 9,873.6 crore YoY. The EBITDA margin saw a YoY improvement of 260 basis points, reaching 54.9%.

Insights

ARPU rises 1.5% quarter-over-quarter

Regarding its Indian operations, the average revenue per user (ARPU) per month increased to Rs. 203, a 1.5% quarter-on-quarter improvement. Analysts had predicted ARPU to grow between 1.6% to 2.2% quarter-on-quarter. The company's mobile customer base expanded by 4.4% to 34.23 crore. In a separate announcement, Bharti Airtel disclosed that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) imposed a penalty of Rs. 1.72 lakh on the company for alleged violations of subscriber verification norms under the license agreement.