Bharti Airtel’s Africa arm posted a quarterly net profit from loss, a year earlier. It was mostly due to an increase in transaction value on its add –on Airtel Money platform and higher data consumption. That has led to a net profit of $83 million in the March quarter, compared to a loss of $49 million a year ago.
The profit made by Airtel’s Africa arm has to be seen against the proposal of the company to go for a public offering in June-July this year. The telecom major, billed as the pioneer in the private telecom sector in India is also facing stiff competition from its arch rival Reliance owned Jio, which has increased its market share mostly cutting into the former’s. Bharti Airtel will post the result of its March quarter on 6th May. In December 2018 quarter, Airtel’s profit had plunged 72% to Rs 86 crore from Rs 306 crore a year earlier quarter, which did not go well with the company in the stock market. Now the company is reposing faith in the Africa operations to bounce back. Significantly, Airtel Africa’s total revenue increased by 6% year-on-year basis from US$736 million to US$781 million in March quarter. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization improved 12% year-on-year from US$307 million to US$344 million in the March quarter. Airtel Africa, the holding firm for Bharti Airtel has operations in 14 countries in the continent and has 99 million customers across three regions, such as Nigeria; East Africa, comprising Kenya Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia; and the rest of Africa, which comprises Niger, Gabon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Seychelles. Nigeria accounts for 40% of its total revenue. Airtel presence in Africa can be traced back to 2010. It bought Kuwait-based Zain’s Africa operations for a whopping US$10.7 billion. In the last few years, the company has made some strategic acquisitions that are in Uganda and Congo Brazzaville and Kenya. Also, it operates through joint ventures and other arrangements in Ghana, and Rwanda, making its operations there significant.
