Bharti Airtel Q4 profit plunges to 15 year low on price war with Reliance Jio; data turns saviour

Bruised by tariffs wars, the country’s largest telecom player Bharti Airtel on Tuesday posted its lowest quarterly profit in nearly 15 years at Rs 82.9 crore for the January-March period, a year-on-year (yoy) drop of 77.8%. Analysts had predicted first net loss for the company. Fourth quarter revenues declined 10.5 % yoy at Rs 19,634 crore, while Ebitda declined 12% to Rs 7,034.1 crore. Ebidta margin was down to 35.8% from 36.8% a year ago and India mobile revenue declined 20% at Rs 10,353.2 crore year.

Africa consolidated revenue was up 11 % to $791 million YoY. However, mobile data usage continued to be a silver lining. The mobile data usage per customer in India increased 394.7% to 6,585 MB during the fourth quarter compared to 1,331 MB in the same quarter last year, while the mobile data on network grew 584% yoy to 1.54 trillion MBs.

In India, Airtel’s mobile data customer base grew 50% to 86.1 million, while mobile broadband customer grew 79.3% at 76.58 million. Even, mobile voice usage per customer went up 42.3% at 670 minutes yoy.

However, average revenue per user (Arpu), a key metric, fell 26.7% to Rs 116 during the fourth quarter.

The telecom sector has been witnessing severe pricing wars triggered by the entry of new player Reliance Jio, which has put industry’s profits and revenues on a downward trajectory.

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s decision to cut international termination charges (ITC) to 30 paise from 53 paise from this February also impacted the financials. Last October, domestic ITC was also drastically reduced.

“The telecom industry continues to witness below cost, artificially suppressed pricing. Industry revenues were further adversely impacted this quarter due to the reduction in international termination rates,” Gopal Vittal, Bharti Airtel’s managing director and chief executive for India and South Asia, said in a statement.

The total customer base stood at 413.8 million as on March 31. Mobile customers base reached 304.19 million as on March 31.

Africa mobile customers stood at 89.26 million. Consolidated net debt increased to Rs 95,228 crore during the quarter. For the year ended March 2018, Airtel’s net profit stood at Rs 1,099 crore, a decline of over 71%.

Source: DNA Money