By Dipo Olowookere
The board of Airtel Africa Plc has announced the release of the first quarter results of the company for the period ended June 30, 2019.
This is the first quarterly financial statements of the telco after its Initial Public Offering (IPO) some weeks ago and its listing on both the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
From the brief analysis of the financial status of the firm, Business Post observed that the revenue generated improved by 6.9 percent to $795.9 million from $744.5 million. This was buoyed by its operations from Nigeria, which recorded a revenue growth of 22.2 percent to $312.9 million from $256.2 million. Its East Africa arm recorded a marginal 4.0 percent rise in revenue, while the rest of Africa suffered a 8.0 percent decline in revenue in the first quarter of the year.
A further analysis of the results showed that the expenses incurred by the company increased by 3.2 percent to $452.3 million from $438.4 million, while the net finance costs increased to $81.5 million from $73.9 million.
In Q1 2019, Airtel Africa said its underlying EBITDA was $347.6 million against $316.9 million in Q1 2018, while the operating profit stood at $186.2 million as at June 30, 2019 in contrast to $169.8 million as at June 30, 2018.
It was further revealed by the board that in the first quarter of its 2019 financial year, the profit before tax was $167.4 million compared with $80.2 million in the first quarter of 2018 fiscal year, indicating 108.8 percent growth.
However, the profit after tax (PAT) went down by 12.2 percent to $132.2 million in Q1 2019 from 150.6 million in Q1 2018, while the earnings per share (EPS) depreciated by 62.2 percent to 4.1 Cents from 10.8 Cents.
A look at the customer base of the telecommunications firm showed a 9.3 percent growth to 99.7 million in the period under review from 91.2 million in the same period of 2018.
While commenting on the results, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Mr Raghunath Mandava, said, “I am pleased to report a strong start to the financial year, in our first quarterly results since the IPO. These results, which are in line with our expectations, are clear evidence of the effectiveness of our strategy across Voice, Data and Mobile Money.
“In the quarter, we delivered a 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 bps.
“Voice revenue, our largest business product, was up 3 percent largely driven by 9 percent growth in our customer base, now reaching nearly 100 million customers across our footprint.
“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 a 79 percent growth in data usage.
“Mobile Money revenue, our fastest growing business, increased by 42 percent as we expanded our distribution reach.
“We continued to invest in our 4G network, adding nearly 1,500 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 license.
“The business continues to show momentum and we are confident of delivering sustained growth across Voice, Data and Mobile Money, underpinning our medium-term aspirations for revenue and profit growth.”
Adedapo Adesanya