How were the third quarter numbers of Bharti Airtel in Dec-21 quarter?

It was a challenging yet fruitful quarter for Bharti Airtel. There was solid growth across its India and Africa mobile business. While operating profit growth was robust on the back of lower access charges, net profits were impacted by exceptional gains in the Dec-20 quarter. However, the operating performance showed signs of margins and APRUs stabilizing. Here is a gist of the numbers of Bharti Airtel for Q3.

Let us begin with the top line evaluation of Bharti Airtel. It reported 12.6% growth in sales for Dec-21 quarter at Rs.29,867 crore. The thrust came from India mobile services which grew 19% due to higher ARPUs. Airtel Business revenues grew 13.4% while homes business grew 40.4%. In Q3, 4G customers increased by 2.99 crore yoy while mobile ARPUs increased from Rs.146 to Rs.163. Bharti Airtel has fully paid Rs.15,519 crore towards deferred spectrum charges and has refused equity dilution in lieu of interest on AGR dues.

Let us turn to operating performance. On yoy basis, operating profits were up 56.6% at Rs.6,974 crore, while consolidated EBITDA came in at Rs.14,905 crore with robust EBIT margins at 49.9%. For the first time, Bharti Airtel crossed Rs.10,000 crore EBITDA in a quarter. Operating margins increased from 16.80% in Dec-20 quarter to 23.35% in the Dec-21 quarter on lower access charges. OPM was 86 bps higher on a sequential basis. During the quarter, Google committed to invest $1 billion into Bharti Airtel.

Net profits were down -2.81% yoy at Rs.830 crore in Dec-21 quarter. This was due to an exceptional gain of Rs.987 crore that Airtel booked from its discontinued operation in the Dec-20 quarter. Consequently, the PAT margins tapered from 3.22% in the Dec-20 quarter to 2.78% in Dec-21 quarter, while the PAT margins were lower 122 bps on sequential basis. As of Dec-21 quarter, Bharti Airtel reported 35.6 crore customers in India, ranking second after Jio. In addition, it also boasts of 12.6 crore customers in Africa.