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Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Monday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹759 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, an increase of 114 per cent compared to a net loss of ₹5,237 crore in the corresponding period last year.
The consolidated revenue of the Sunil Bharti Mittal-owned company grew 12 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to ₹25,747 crore against ₹23,019 crore in the January-March quarter last year.
India revenue was up 17.5 per cent YoY at ₹18,338 crore on a comparable basis, the company said in a statement adding that mobile revenue grew 19 per cent YoY basis on account of the improved realisations as well as strong customer addition.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) continued to be industry’s best at ₹145 during the fourth quarter against ₹135 in the fourth quarter last year, an outcome of the company’s focus on acquiring quality customers as well as up-trading and up-gradation of customers to 4G, the company said.
4G net addition
The company continues to garner a strong share of the 4G net additions in the market and the 4G data customers increased by 31.5 per cent YoY to 179.3 million, an addition of around 43 million over the last four quarters.
The average data usage per customer was at 16.4 GBs/month, while voice usage was at 1,053 minutes/customer/month, it said. Airtel's global (16 countries) customer base stood at around 47 crore at the end of reported quarter.
“Our services are the digital oxygen that the country needs in this challenging time as we experience a vicious second wave of Covid-19. I am grateful to our people who are doing all they can to strengthen our network experience and serve our customers braving massive odds. It is this relentless focus on customer obsession that has allowed us to deliver another consistent quarter,” Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, India and South Asia, said.
Post-paid business
The company continues to see strong traction in its post-paid business and added 6,30,000 post-paid customers during the quarter and around 1.9 million over the last four quarters, he said.
Airtel also rolled out additional 8,300 towers in the quarter, to further expand and strengthen network coverage, and fortified strong spectrum portfolio with the acquisition of 355.45 MHz spectrum across sub GHz, mid-band and 2300 MHz bands for ₹18,699 crore (on bid value) in the latest spectrum auctions.
With this, Airtel has secured pan India footprint of sub-GHz spectrum that will help improve its deep indoor and in building coverage in every urban town, the company mentioned.
On the annual basis, the company has narrowed the loss to ₹15,084 crore during 2020-21 from ₹32,183 crore in 2019-20. Revenue during the financial year crossed ₹1 lakh crore against ₹84,676 crore in 2019-20.
Airtel shares closed at ₹549.55 apiece on the BSE on Monday, down 1.96 per cent from the previous close.
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