By A Special Correspondent
Airtel Africa returned to profit in its latest financial year driven by a rise in subscriber base despite a continued hit from currency devaluation across its markets.
In a statement, the operator highlighted an 8.7% year-on-year increase in total customers to 166.1 million, supported by a 4.3 percentage point rise in smartphone penetration to 44.8%.
The number of data customers rose 14.1% to 73.4 million, with data usage per customer increasing by 30.4% to 7GB. This helped boost data ARPU by 15.4% in constant currency.
Mobile money users also grew, with Airtel Money reporting a 17.3% increase in subscribers to 44.6 million and an 11.4% growth in ARPU on a constant currency basis.
Key operational highlights for the year included the deployment of 2,583 new mobile sites and the rollout of approximately 3,300km of fibre to expand network capacity across its footprint.
However, full-year revenue fell 0.5% to US$4.96 billion, dragged down by currency devaluation -although in constant currency, revenue increased by 21.1%. Growth was strongest in the final quarter, buoyed by Nigerian tariff hikes and signs of macroeconomic stabilisation.
EBITDA dropped 5.1% to US$2.3 billion, with the margin narrowing to 46.5% from 48.8% the previous year. Capital expenditure totalled US$670 million, below guidance, but the operator plans to raise this to between US$725 million and US$750 million in the coming year.
Net profit reached US$328 million, a sharp turnaround from a US$89 million loss in the previous year, when earnings were hit by significant foreign exchange and derivative losses, particularly in Nigeria.
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