- 06 Aug 2024
- ICICI Securities
Bharti Airtel: Steady Performance; Eyes on tariff hike flow through ahead
BHARTIARTL - 1578 Change: 35.20 (2.28 %)News: Consolidated topline at ₹ 38506 crore, was up 2.4% QoQ and up 2.8% YoY. India wireless revenues were up 2.1% QoQ (up 10.5% YoY) at ₹ 22527 crore, with overall subscriber addition of 2.3 mn during the quarter. The Average Revenues per User (ARPU) came at ₹ 211, up 0.8% QoQ and ~5.4% YoY, tad better than Jio which had flat ARPU. It witnessed healthy 4G Net adds of 6.7mn during the quarter, with 4G data sub base at 259.4 mn. The post-paid subscriber base also saw robust addition of ~814k subscribers at 23.9 mn. The data usage per sub was up 5.1% QoQ at 23.7 GB per month. Africa Revenues at ₹ 9637 crore, were up 3.7% QoQ. Consolidated EBITDA came in at ₹ 19708 crore, with margins of 51.2%, down 32 bps QoQ as Africa Margins at 45.3% was down 127 bps QoQ. India wireless margins at 55.6% was up 50 bps QoQ. The net debt (excl. lease liabilities) at ₹ 1.35 lakh crore was down by ₹5845 crore QoQ, clearly reflecting healthy cash flow generation.
Views: Airtel has reported relatively stable performance on Indian wireless business front with resilient APRU, sustained post-paid/4G subscribers’ addition, margins and cash flow generation. Key monitorable for the company would be tariff hike flow through, which will kick in from Q2FY25 onwards. Management commentary on overall growth drivers would be key monitorable ahead.
Impact: Neutral