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  • 08 Feb 2023
  • ICICIdirect Research

BHARTI AIRTEL REPORTS SUPERIOR POST-PAID/4G SUBSCRIBER ADDITION, ARPU GROWTH TRAJECTORY

BHARTIARTL - 1831 Change: 8.90 (0.49 %)

News: Bharti Airtel's Q3FY23 performance was healthy with beat on subscriber addition and margins. Consolidated topline came in at Rs 35,804 crore, up 3.7% QoQ and 19.9% YoY. India wireless revenues were up 2.5% QoQ (up 20.3% YoY) at Rs 19353 crore, with subscriber addition of 4.4 mn and ARPU came in at Rs 193.4, up 1.9% QoQ. Key highlight was overall sub base addition of 4.4 mn QoQ at 332.2 mn (our expectation was addition of 1 million). It witnessed healthy 4G Net adds of ~6.4 mn during the quarter, with 4G data sub base at 216.7 mn (overall data customers base of 225.3 mn). The post-paid subscriber base also saw robust addition of ~653k subscribers at 19 mn. Consolidated EBITDA came in at Rs 18453 crore, up 4.9% QoQ, with margins of 51.5%, up 58 bps QoQ. India wireless margins was at 53.8% (up 150 bps QoQ) was driven by lower SUC charges after new spectrum purchase. Overall Indian margin was up 95 bps QoQ at 52.7%. The Africa margin was at 49.1%, was flat QoQ

Views: Airtel continues to report a healthy performance on Indian wireless business front with resilient and industry leading KPIs in terms of India post-paid/4G subscribers, ARPUs and margins. Management commentary on overall growth drivers would be the key monitorable ahead. We remain constructive on Airtel given the disproportionate benefits of market consolidation in telecom sector

Impact: Positive