Leading telecom services provider, Airtel Africa has reported impressive performance in its financial and other operational indices for the half year ended September 30 this year, with the subscriber base growing to 147.7 million across 14 countries in the continent, representing 23.0% increase in data users to 59.8 million and a 23.1% rise in mobile money clients to 36.5 million.
Also, the mobile network operator reported that its mobile services revenue increased by 18.3% driven by 11.5% rise in voice revenue and 28.1% growth in data revenue while in constant currency, the mobile money revenue increased by 30.9%.
In addition, its income (measured in constant currency) increased by 19.7%, while reported currency revenue increased by 2.3% to $2,623 million.
According to the telco, its EBITDA climbed by 21.2% (constant currency) and 3.7% (reported currency) to $1,302 million, with an EBITDA margin of 49.6%, despite inflationary cost pressures and foreign exchange headwinds, according to Airtel.
Despite the positive trends, the MNO’s after tax loss was $13 million, mostly due to a $471 million foreign exchange loss recorded in finance cost before tax, and $317 million after tax, due to the devaluation of the Nigerian naira in June 2023, stating that “this impact has been classified as an exceptional item.”
The telco’s Earnings Per Share (EPS) before exceptional items were 7.0 cents, a 3.2% increase.
It clarified: “EPS before exceptional items and excluding foreign exchange and derivative losses was 10.7 cents. Basic EPS at negative (1.5 cents) compared to 7.9 cents in the prior period, was impacted by $317m net exceptional loss on account of naira devaluation in June 2023.”
Commenting on the Airtel Africa Group’s half year results, the Group Chief Executive Officer, Olusegun Ogunsanya, said that the performance was very strong, despite foreign exchange headwinds in many of its markets, particularly in Nigeria.
He said: “The resilient growth in voice, data and mobile money usage levels reflects the inherent demand for these essential services across our footprint, and our six-pillar ‘win-with’ strategy continues to ensure we capture this growth opportunity by expanding our customer base and providing the platform to enable increased usage across the network,” he said.
“This strong momentum is supported by continued cost efficiencies, which enabled further EBITDA margin expansion.
“As reported in July 2023, our results for the first quarter were significantly impacted by the changes to the forex market in Nigeria, introduced by the Central Bank. While the changes are required for the long-term benefit of the Nigerian economy, the immediate impact of the naira devaluation continues to weigh on our reported financial performance in the period.”
“Our focus remains to enhance long term value by continuing to drive sustained and efficient growth. Over the last five years we have delivered constant currency revenue and EBITDA compound annual growth of 17.1% and 20.7% respectively, allowing us to further de-risk the balance sheet and improve profitability across the group”, Ogunsanya added.
Looking forward, he maintained that the delivery of affordable and reliable telecom and mobile money services across Airtel markets would remain a key focus of the group’s management.
He expatiated: “Our strong operating performance continues to make us a stronger and bigger company, which is well positioned to deliver against the growth opportunities these markets offer. Despite the challenges of rising diesel prices in Nigeria, we aim to limit the impact with continued operational leverage and further cost efficiencies to deliver an improved EBITDA margin in FY’24 versus FY’23.”
