Bharti Airtel advanced by nearly 13% on Sensex, with an intraday high of Rs487.80 per piece in Wednesday's early trading session. The telecom service provider continues to remain the top gainer on exchanges after the company announced its financial performance for the quarter ended September 2020 (Q2FY21). Airtel recorded highest ever consolidated quarterly revenues, while India business delivered strong growth across revenue, margins, customers. The bottom-line front also improved of Airtel during Q2.
Airtel recorded a consolidated net loss after exceptional items of Rs763cr during Q2FY21. The consolidated net loss before exceptional items for the quarter stands at Rs744cr. Meanwhile, consolidated revenue was at Rs25,785cr increasing by 22% yoy, with strong growth across the portfolio – geographies and segments.
Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said, "Despite being a seasonally weak quarter, we delivered a strong performance with revenue growing at ~22% YoY. In the mobile segment, we added over ~14M 4G customeRsand grew revenues by ~26%. Our focus on building the most aspirational brand in Indian Telecom to win quality customeRsis delivering results. Our data consumption grew by 58% YoY which reflects the strong engagement of customeRson our network. This further underscores our DNA of customer obsession and delivering brilliant experiences through a future-ready network and innovative digital platforms. Other lines of business also continued with steady growth momentum, with Airtel business growing 7.5% YoY."
Vittal added, "We stay committed to improving the profitability of the business. Our continued focus on ARPU improvement and cost
optimization led to EBITDA margin expansion by over ~ 158 bps in the quarter sequentially."
Key highlights of the September 2020 quarter as per the filing are:
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Consolidated EBITDA at Rs11,848cr; EBITDA margin at 46.0% - improvement of 366 bps YoY
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Consolidated EBIT at Rs4,412cr; EBIT margin at 17.1% - improvement of 768 bps YoY
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India revenues Rs18,747cr up 22.0% YoY led by strong 4G customer momentum and up-trading
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Mobile services India revenues up 26.0% YoY
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Mobile ARPU at Rs162 vs Rs128 in Q2FY20
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4G data customeRsat 152.7M, up by 14.4M for the quarter
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Usage metrics remain best in class; Data usage per sub at 16.0 GBs/month
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Continues to provide brilliant network experience, now with a robust network of more than 200K towers
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Airtel Business and Homes sees revenue growth of 7.5% and 7.3% YoY respectively
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DTH added 549K customeRsduring the quarter. Base increases from 16.8M in Q1FY21 to 17.4M in Q2FY21
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Digital Services now amongst the strongest in the country - 160M digitally engaged customers
At around 10.36 am Airtel stock trades at Rs466.70 per piece up Rs33.70 or 7.78% on Sensex.
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