Airtel Africa Q1FY26 net profit jumps 5-times to $156 million

Time of India

3 days ago

New Delhi:
Bharti Airtel
's Africa business reported a five-times on-year jump in net profit to $156 million in the fiscal first quarter, driven by continued operating momentum, stable fuel prices, and an exceptional gain owing to foreign currency fluctuations.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2025, profit after tax rose 95% sequentially, helped by a $22 million gain due to the Central African Franc (CFA) appreciation during the quarter. Profit in the a year-ago quarter was $31 million.
Airtel Africa
's revenue rose 24.9% on-year in constant currency to $1.41 billion helped by Nigeria tariff adjustments, a strong performance in Francophone Africa, and easing currency headwinds over the last three quarter.
'This strong revenue performance and continued cost efficiencies contributed to further EBITDA margin expansion which resulted in strong EBITDA growth of approximately 30%, and we remain focussed on further margin improvements subject to macroeconomic stability,' said Sunil Taldar, CEO, Airtel Africa.
He added that with smartphone penetration only at 45.9%, there is significant headroom to drive further adoption for Airtel Africa and play a key role in bridging the digital divide.
Airtel Africa returned $45 million to shareholders in April 2025 following a purchase of 26.3 million ordinary shares as part of the first tranche of the company's second share buyback programme that will return up to $100 million to shareholders in two tranches.
The company started the second tranche of share buyback in May 2025, where it will buy back $55 million worth of ordinary shares by November 2025. So far, the company has returned $16.9 million since the commencement of the second tranche, following a purchase of 7.1 million shares as of June 2025, Airtel Africa said.
Airtel Africa's net finance cost rose 24% on-year to $173 million in Q1, reflecting an increase in interest on lease liabilities due to tower contract renewals, and increased OpCo (operating company) market debt.
Finance costs also rose due to a shift in foreign currency debt to local currency debt, which carries a higher average interest rate. The group's effective interest rate increased to 12.9% in Q1 compared to 12.7% a year ago.
During the June quarter, 95% of Airtel's Africa's OpCo debt (excluding lease liabilities) was in local currency, up from 86% a year ago, as part of the company's aim to reduce its foreign currency debt.
Capex for the quarter ended June 30, 2025, at $121 million was 18% lower than a year ago driven largely by timing differences. The company gave a capex guidance between $725 million-$750 million for the full year.
A continued operating momentum, stable fuel prices, and sustained benefits from its cost efficiency programme led to Airtel Africa's quarterly operating margins expanding to 48% from 45.3% a year ago in Q1 2026.
Operational performance continued strong momentum in the fiscal first quarter with Airtel Africa's ARPU — a key performance metric — rising 4.4% sequentially to $2.4 due to a 13.2% sequential gain in net customer additions of 3.3 million.
The penetration of Airtel Africa's mobile money services grew 2.8% sequentially as mobile money customer base grew to 45.8 million in the June quarter. ARPU from the mobile money services grew 5.9% sequentially to $2.1, while quarterly revenue from the mobile money business grew 8.1% on-quarter to $284 million.
The data user base of Airtel Africa increased 3% sequentially to 75.6 million in the June quarter. The overall customer base across the telco's 14 African markets rose 2% sequentially to 169.4 million. Data revenue increased 10% sequentially to $548 million, helped by a 11.7% increase in data consumption.