Bharti Airtel Q1 results: Net profit soars 466%; ARPU rises to Rs 183

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Monday reported 466% surge in consolidated net profit (attributable to owners of the parent) at Rs 1,607 crore for the quarter ending June 30, 2022, boosted by subscriber additions. It reported net profit of Rs 284 crore in the year-ago period.

The company’s consolidated revenue from operations rose 21% to Rs 32,805 crore in Q1FY23 as compared to Rs 27,064 crore in Q1FY22. Bharti Airtel’s mobile services revenue in India grew 27% year-on-year to Rs 18,220 crore for the first quarter from Rs 14,305.6 crore.

The company’s average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to Rs 183 in Q1FY23 as against Rs 146 in Q1FY22. ARPU of rivals Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea for the same period was Rs 175.7 and Rs 128, respectively.

The company said in November, when it announced tariff hikes, that mobile ARPU needed to be at Rs 200 and ultimately at Rs 300, for a financially healthy business model.

On Monday, the company’s scrip on BSE closed nearly flat at Rs 704.35.

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. Airtel’s strategy of winning with quality customers continues to yield good results with an industry beating ARPU at Rs 183.

“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.”

The firm said its 4G customers rose by 20.8 million on an annual basis and by 4.5 million on a sequential basis.

Mobile data consumption rose by 16.6% YoY, consumption per mobile data customer at 19.5 GB per month, said Airtel.

“Airtel to lead India’s 5G revolution with acquisition of ideal spectrum bank at least cost for best 5Gexperience and 100x capacity enhancement; procured 19,867.8 MHz spectrum for Rs 43,040 crore in the recently concluded 5G spectrum,” the company said in a stock exchange filing.

The company has been raising money to fund its digital ambitions, including developing home broadband, data centres, cloud adoption as it prepares to launch its next-generation 5G services in the country.