Bharti Airtel July-September Profit Surges 89% On Strong Revenue, Higher ARPU

Bharti Airtel Ltd. posted an 89% year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to ₹67.92 billion for the September quarter, driven by higher realisations and a growing customer base. Profit stood at ₹35.93 billion in the same period last year.

Revenue from operations rose 25.7% to ₹521.45 billion from ₹414.73 billion a year ago. Revenue from the India business increased 22.6% to ₹386.90 billion, with mobile revenue up 13.2% on-year.

Airtel’s EBITDA rose 35.9% to ₹299.19 billion, with margins improving to 57.4% from 53.1% a year earlier. The India business reported an even stronger EBITDA margin of 60%. The company’s net debt-to-EBITDA ratio improved to 1.63 times from 2.5 times as of September 2024.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) rose to ₹256 from ₹233 a year ago, reflecting an increase of ₹23 per user. Airtel’s total customer base stood at 624 million across 15 countries, including 450 million in India and 174 million in Africa. Smartphone data users in India grew by 22.2 million over the past year, an 8.4% increase.

Airtel continued to expand its digital infrastructure, adding 2,479 towers and 20,841 mobile broadband base stations in the quarter. Over the past 12 months, it deployed 12,796 new towers and laid 44,104 km of fibre.

Among business segments, Airtel’s Homes segment delivered 30.2% revenue growth, supported by strong customer additions of 0.95 million during the quarter, taking the total base to 12 million. The Digital TV segment reported revenue of ₹7.53 billion with a customer base of 15.4 million.