MTN Group’s arch-rival in Africa, Bharti Airtel reported that its African revenue was up by 4% year on year in the third quarter of the year.
The group’s revenue was Rs 24,652 crore, with a growth of 5.6% year on year underlying basis. Bharti Airtel noted that its.
Just like the case of MTN Group, the company also whined about the Naira (NGN) devaluation saying its “Consolidated revenue growth muted by 3.3% on account of full quarter impact of Nigeria currency devaluation.
Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, commented on the result that “Our strong focus on enhancing customer experience and building a robust network has resulted in continued acceleration of revenue market share. Overall Revenue momentum in India has been sustained during Q2 with a growth of 10.1% Y-o-Y.
He added that “This is primarily due to the strong performance of our non-mobile businesses which grew in aggregate at 18.8% Y-o-Y, albeit our mobile business has experienced a slowdown in growths due to free services being offered by a new operator. But, we remain excited about the long term opportunity in India and believe that with the recently acquired spectrum, we are well positioned to lead India’s data revolution”.
Raghunath Mandava, Chief Operating Officer, Africa, said: “Underlying Africa revenue growth for the quarter was 4.7% Y-o-Y, backed by our focus on profitable top line growth, led via localized distribution, stronger data networks and our war on waste program. Customer growth with focus on quality helped garner the highest net adds over the past 4 quarters, with churn remaining stable. With over 23% of our customers now using data, consumption and revenues have grown by 116.8% & 24.9% Y-o-Y respectively.
He disclosed that “Airtel Money also continues to lead with transaction values growing over 53% Y-o-Y, and base expansion of 15.3% Y-o-Y. As a result, our EBITDA margin has improved by 5.3% Y-o-Y on an underlying basis”.
Registered in Nigeria as Bharti Airtel Nigeria Holding II B.V., Airtel is Nigeria’s third largest mobile carrier with 33,6 million subscribers as at Q1 2016. As at August, the company has a total of 18,5 million mobile data customers. Airtel is been trailed closely in the market by Etisalat.
