Bharti Airtel Limited (“Bharti Airtel” or “the Company”) on Wednesday announced its audited consolidated IFRS results for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2011. Overall customer base is slated at 243 million.
The integrated telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa said its consolidated total revenues for the third quarter ended Dec 31, 2011 grew by 17.1% indicated at $3,649 million Y-o-Y.
It also revealed that India & South Asia continued its double digit revenue growth (Y-o-Y 12.1% $2,600 million) aided by what it said was “improvement in realisation rates” with Africa revenues recording what it described as “ a healthy Y-o-Y growth” of 16.1% at $1,057 million; the growth it added “was a strong 32.2% in Rupee terms”, aided by exchange rate movements. Bharti reported a 32.2% increase in Consolidated EBITDA margins for the quarter for the Q under review (Q3 FY11: 31.7%), with significant margin improvement being reported in Africa (Q3 FY 12: 26.7%, Q3 FY 11: 19.1%).
The income before taxes for Q3 FY12 increased by 2.0% to $312 million (Q3 FY11: $344 million) after accounting for the impact of 3G license fee amortisation ($32 million) and interest costs (higher by $23 million).
Bharti however said that higher tax provisions impacted the net income, which was lower at $200 million (Q3 FY11: $289 million). The consolidated year-to-date effective tax rate works out at 32.5%. Consolidated Operating Free Cash Flow in the nine months recorded at $1,299 million was according to the Telecom provider “ lifted by a strong performance” in India; Africa it added “reported positive operating cash flow” for the first time in Q3.
The Net Debt Equity ratio is 1.38 (Q2 FY12: 1.33) and Net Debt – EBITDA ratio was held at 2.56 (Q2 FY12: 2.59).
In a statement, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Airtel Limited, said he is “pleased that investments in branding and networks continue to be our focus in India, as we enhance customer experience for voice quality and cater to the ever increasing demand for data. These investments are resulting in healthy growth of Mobile revenues. In Africa, we have crossed the 50 million customer milestone and are now one of the fastest growing telecom companies in the continent”.
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