Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel spurted to a new high on the back of its exuberant performance for Q1Fy15 and expectations of things to get only better in the coming months. For the current Q1, it reported a very healthy 61% (YoY) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs.1108 crore while revenue rose 13% at Rs.22,962 crore. Its main bread winner or growth driver is mobile data, which showed a 74% jump in revenue at Rs.2204 crore.  EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs.7720 crore, up 6% while sequential margins came in at 33.6% v/s 32.9%. The bottomline would have been much higher but for the impact of an exceptional loss of Rs.252 crore.

The performance of the company is driven by its Indian operations while Africa remains a drag. Consolidated revenue from Indian wireless stood at Rs.12,752 crore, up 5% (QoQ), with EBITDA at Rs.4707 crore, up 12% and margins grew from 34.9% to 36.9%. On the other hand, revenue from Africa rose by less than 2% (QoQ), with EBITDA coming in lower by 2.4% and margins slipping to 24.3% from 25.3%.

In terms of ARPU, that from India mobile was at Rs.202 v/s Rs.196 (QoQ), data ARPU was at Rs.139 v/s Rs.133. Comparatively, Africa ARPU was at US$5.6 v/s US$5.6 and its African consumer base was down at 6.91%, down 1% sequentially. Africa largely remains a big worry, after the company spent $9 billion to acquire the African assets and today it makes for 30% of Bharti’s overall revenue.