New Delhi: India's second-largest telecom firm Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 284 crore for the June quarter against a loss of Rs 15,933 crore a year ago when the company had made provisioning for AGR dues.
On a sequential basis, Airtel's net profit slumped over 62 per cent from Rs 759.2 crore in the March quarter -- a result of higher finance and depreciation costs, as also an exceptional gain in the previous quarter.
Announcing its Q1 earnings scorecard, the company said though the wireless revenue was impacted by the COVID lockdown-induced slowdown with regard to device shipments and financial squeeze at the lower end of the market, the overall performance reflected the strength of Airtel's portfolio.
The total revenue surged 15.3 per cent year-on-year to Rs 26,854 crore during the quarter ended June 2021. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, it was up 4.2 per cent.
The consolidated net profit after exceptional items stood at Rs 284 crore during Q1 FY22, and before exceptional items at Rs 266 crore.
The company's quarterly report mentioned, "the exceptional gain of Rs 305 million (Rs 30.5 crore) during the quarter ended June 30, 2021, on account of sale of telecommunications tower assets in one of the Group's subsidiaries".
The net share allocated to non-controlling interests on this exceptional item is Rs 13.3 crore, it explained.
Mobile Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) stood at Rs 146 in June 2021 against Rs 145 in the March quarter, and Rs 138 in Q1 FY21 (recast for call connect charges or IUC).
"ARPU continues to be the best in the industry - average data usage per data customer at 18.5 GBs/month; while voice usage was at 1,044 mins/customer/month," an Airtel statement said.
India revenues for the just-ended quarter at Rs 18,828 crore increased by 19.2 per cent year-on-year on a comparable basis and 11.1 per cent year-on-year on a reported basis. Mobile revenues grew by 21.9 per cent year-on-year on a comparable basis on account of the improved realisations as well as strong 4G customer addition.
"Our consolidated revenues at Rs 26,854 crores grew by Rs 1,106 crores over the last quarter, representing a sequential growth of 4.3 per cent, while EBITDA margins improved from 48.9 per cent to 49.1 per cent," Gopal Vittal, CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel, said.
Admitting that wireless revenue was impacted by the COVID lockdown-induced slowdown, Vittal highlighted that Airtel's overall performance reflected the resilience and strength of its portfolio.
"We added about 5.1 million 4G customers during the quarter and our enterprise business in India continued to deliver strongly. Our Homes business grew by just about 13 per cent over last year and added 2,85,000 customers in the quarter, the highest ever," he said.