Airtel Africa Posts $79 Million Profit in Q2 FY25

New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) Airtel Africa, a unit of Bharti Airtel, has posted a net profit of USD 79 million for the July-September quarter against a loss of USD 13 million in the year-ago period.

Its profit was impacted by USD 151 million of exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses (net of tax), arising from the further depreciation in the Nigerian Naira during the period, a company statement said.

Airtel Africa reported revenue of USD 2,370 million for Q2 FY25, a decline of 9.64 per cent from USD 2,623 million in Q2 FY24.

"We have seen our cost optimisation programme already show initial green shoots, which combined with operational leverage, has contributed to an expansion of our EBITDA margins in Q2 FY25 compared to the previous quarter.

"Foreign currency debt has fallen to just 11 per cent of market debt at the end of September, which reflects the work we have undertaken to de-risk the balance sheet," Airtel Africa CEO Sunil Taldar said.

Over the year, the company significantly reduced its foreign currency debt exposure, having paid USD 809 million of foreign currency debt, the statement said.

Its total customer base grew by 6.1 per cent year-on-year to USD 156.6 million.

With smartphone penetration increasing by 5.3 per cent, data usage per customer increased by 30.9 per cent to 6.6 GB, it said.

"Data capacity across our network has increased by 20 per cent with the rollout of over 2,800 sites and around 3,500 km of fibre," the company said.

It recorded data ARPU growth of 13.5 per cent and mobile money ARPU growth of 10.9 per cent in constant currency.

"The scale of the opportunity across our markets remains substantial. A young and fast-growing population, combined with low levels of SIM and banking penetration on one hand and increasing smartphone and digital payment adoption across our existing base on the other, provides a unique opportunity to leverage our extensive infrastructure for sustained growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," Taldar said.