Bharti Airtel reported a 37.5% decrease in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter (July-September) of FY24, dropping to ₹1,340.7 crore from ₹2,145.2 crore the previous year. This decline comes despite a 7.3% year-on-year increase in consolidated revenue, which reached ₹37,044 crore, driven by robust 4G and 5G customer additions.
What Happened? A one-time charge of ₹1,350 crore, related to a Supreme Court ruling on variable license fees, impacted the results. Additionally, a ₹220 crore charge arose from the re-assessment of regulatory levies. Airtel’s average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 6.8% year-on-year to ₹203. In India, the company’s revenue for Q2FY24 grew by 10.9% year-on-year to ₹26,995 crore, with mobile services contributing ₹20,952 crore.
Gopal Vittal, Bharti Airtel’s managing director, highlighted the company’s solid revenue growth and improved margins. He also mentioned the impact of the Nigerian Naira’s devaluation on consolidated revenue.
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Airtel expanded its network by adding 11,100 new towers during the quarter. The company’s ARPU for the September quarter surpassed its competitors, standing at ₹203 compared to Jio’s ₹181.7 and Vodafone Idea’s ₹142.
Airtel also saw a surge in postpaid users, adding 1 million in the last quarter, bringing the total to 214.6 million in India. Mobile data consumption per customer in India rose to 21.7 GB per month.
Price Action: Bharti Airtel shares were trading 0.27% lower at ₹911.95 on early Wednesday shortly after markets opened for trading.
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