Bharti Airtel Q1 results: Net profit surges 466% to Rs 1,607 cr, ARPU grows to Rs 183

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Monday reported 466 per cent surge year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,607 crore for the quarter ended 30 June, 2022, mainly boosted by recent subscriber count. The telco had reported a profit of Rs 283.50 crore in the year-ago period.

The company's consolidated revenue from operations rose to Rs 32,805 crore for the quarter ended June 30, from Rs 26,854 crore in the same period last year, backed by strong and consistent performance delivery across the portfolio, according to a regulatory filing.

The company's average revenue per user (ARPU) also improved to Rs 183 per user in Q1FY23 versus Rs 146 in Q1FY22.

Moreover, its consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA increased 25.9 per cent to Rs 16,604 crore, while its EBITDA margin rose 150 bps YoY to 50.6 per cent, Airtel added.

The telco's consolidated India mobile services revenue was up 27 per cent to Rs 18,220 crore as against Rs 14,306 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

In the digital space, Airtel added that its 4G customers up by 20.8 million YoY and 4.5 million QoQ with 63 per cent of overall customer base. The mobile data consumption was up 16.6 pe cent, consumption per mobile data customer at 19.5 GB per month.

Further, home business continued to expand its footprint with net additions of 1.4 million quarter under review while its digital TV customer base stood at 17.4 million.

The monthly transacting users on Airtel Payments Bank increased 65 per cent YoY.

Shares of Bharti Airtel on Monday closed 0.11 per cent lower at Rs 704.35 apiece on BSE.

Commenting on the results, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, said: “This has been another solid quarter. We continue to deliver strong and sustained growth at 4.5% sequentially. EBITDA margins are now at 50.6%. Our enterprise and homes business has strong momentum and delivered strong double digit growth, improving the diversity of the overall portfolio."

"As India gets ready to launch 5G, we are well positioned to raise the bar on innovation. We are also confident of meeting the emerging needs of discerning customers looking for speed, coverage and latency. Our astute spectrum strategy over the last few years as we bolstered mid band spectrum is designed to deliver the best experience at the lowest total cost of ownership," Vittal added.

Recently, India's biggest ever auction of 5G telecom spectrum concluded on August 1 after receiving a record Rs 1.5 lakh crore of bids. Mukesh Ambani's Jio cornered nearly half of all the airwaves sold with an Rs 88,078 crore bid. Richest Indian Gautam Adani's group, whose entry in the auction was billed by some as another flash point in the rivalry with Ambani, paid Rs 212 crore for 400 MHz, or less than one per cent of all spectrum sold, in a band that is not used for offering public telephony services.

Telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel made a successful bid of Rs 43,084 crore, while Vodafone Idea Ltd bought spectrum for Rs 18,799 crore.