Airtel Africa, a Bharti Airtel subsidiary, reported a profit of $115 million for the quarter ending in September, marking a 13.53% decrease from the $133 million profit in the same quarter in 2022.
The company’s revenue for the quarter was $1.2 billion, a 4.61% decline from $1.3 billion in the previous year’s corresponding quarter.
The company’s EBITDA fell by 9% to $620 million from $682 million, but the EBITDA margin improved by 80 basis points to 49.8% during the quarter.
Despite foreign exchange challenges in many markets, particularly Nigeria, Group CEO Olusegun Ogunsanya expressed satisfaction with the company’s strong operational performance.
He attributed this to resilient growth in voice, data, and mobile money usage levels across their footprint in 14 African countries.
“As reported in July 2023, our results for the first quarter were significantly impacted by the changes to the FX market in Nigeria, introduced by the Central Bank.
While the changes are required for the long-term benefit of the Nigerian economy, the immediate impact of the naira devaluation continues to weigh on our reported financial performance in the period.
Our focus remains to enhance long-term value by continuing to drive sustained and efficient growth. Over the last five years, we have delivered constant currency revenue and EBITDA CAGR of 17.1% and 20.7%, respectively, allowing us to further derisk the balance sheet and improve profitability across the Group,” said Olusegun.
The company reported losses in the June quarter due to the devaluation of Nigerian currency by their central bank, which also impacted the September quarter results.
However, Ogunsanya remains optimistic about improving the EBITDA margin in FY24 versus FY23 through operational leverage and cost efficiencies.
