Airtel Africa June quarter profit down 12% to $132 mn; revenue rises 10.2% to $796 mn

New Delhi: Airtel Africa on Friday reported 12.2 percent decline in profit after tax to $132.2 million (Rs 911 crore) for the quarter ended 30 June, 2019. The company had posted a profit after tax of $150.6 million in the same period a year ago, according to a company statement. However, the profit before tax more than doubled to $167.4 million from $80.2 million year-on-year. The revenue of Airtel Africa grew 10.2 percent to $795.9 million in April-June 2019 quarter from $744.5 million in the corresponding period of the last fiscal. [caption id=“attachment_4086001” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters. [/caption] “In the quarter, we delivered 10 percent increase in revenue in constant currency terms, with even higher underlying EBITDA growth largely as a result of operating leverage and a tight focus on costs which led to underlying EBITDA margin expansion of 101 basis points,” Airtel Africa CEO Raghunath Mandava said in a statement. He said the earnings marked a strong start to the financial year and is the first quarterly results since its listing. Airtel Africa recorded a three percent increase in revenue from voice segment – the biggest contributor to the overall business of the company, largely driven by 9 percent growth in the customer base. The company’s total customer base at the end of reported quarter reached 99.7 million. “Data revenue, our largest contributor to growth, was up 36 percent as an increasing number of customers relied on our high-quality and high-speed LTE network, resulting in 79 percent growth in data usage. “Mobile Money revenue, our fastest growing business, increased 42 percent as we expanded our distribution reach,” Mandava said. The company during the quarter added nearly 1,500 mobile sites. “Now more than half of our sites are 4G. We also continue to prepare for the launch of our Mobile Money business in Nigeria, securing approval of the brand name, an important step as we await approval for our payment service bank licence,” Mandava said.