Airtel Africa Plc released its Q1 2023 Unaudited results for the period ended June 30th 2022.

Key Highlights

• Revenue grew by 13.04% from $1.1bn to $1.26bn.
• Profit before tax stood at $276m
• Profit after tax stood at $178m
• Share Price Currently Stands at N1905.4k

Highlights

• Revenue grew by 13.0% in reported currency to $1,257m. In constant currency terms revenue grew by 15.3%.
• Total revenues, for mobile services and mobile money services combined, grew in Nigeria by 18.3%, in East Africa by 14.1% and in Francophone Africa by 11.7%.
• Revenue growth in constant currency was posted across all four reporting segments. Mobile Services revenue in Nigeria grew by 18.3%, in East Africa by 11.1% and in Francophone Africa by 10.6% (and across the Group by 14.2%, with voice revenue up by 11.3% and data revenue up by 19.8%). Mobile Money revenue grew by 26.5%, driven by growth of 26.9% in East Africa and 25.4% in Francophone Africa.
• EBITDA grew by 14.9% to $614m in reported currency.
• EBITDA margin was 48.8%, an increase of 78 basis points in reported currency and 52 basis points in constant currency.
• Operating profit grew by 20.6% to $425m in reported currency.
• Profit after tax grew by 25.3% to $178m.
• Basic EPS increased to 4.4 cents (up by 31.0%). EPS before exceptional items was 3.8 cents, up from 3.2 cents in the prior period.
• Operating free cash flow grew by 10.3% to $473m, while net cash generated from operating activities reduced by 13.2% to $388m, mainly due to increased cash tax payments from both higher taxes on declared dividends and increased taxable profits. 
• Leverage ratio has improved to 1.3x from 1.8x in the prior period. Post period end, in July 2022, the Group prepaid $450m of outstanding external debt at HoldCo. The remaining debt at HoldCo is now $550m, falling due in May 2024.
• Our total customer base increased to 131.6 million, up 8.9%, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 9.7%) and mobile money services (customer base up 19.7%).

Segun Ogunsanya, chief executive officer, on the trading update:

‘I am pleased to report that the Group has continued to post double-digit revenue growth, margin improvement and strong earnings growth. I am also particularly pleased with our ongoing strengthening of the balance sheet which continued after the period ended, with early repayment of $450m of debt at Group level.

As we flagged in our full year announcement, this quarter we have faced headwinds from outbound voice call barring for customers who had not yet registered their National Identification Numbers in Nigeria and the loss of site sharing revenue in those OpCos where we recently sold towers. Inflation is also having an impact on our cost base, particularly on energy costs, but our continued efficiency drives have ensured that we have still been able to increase our margins, albeit at a slightly slower rate.

After receiving the Payment Service Bank licence in Nigeria just a few months ago, it is a testament to our prior preparation that we have already managed to launch our mobile money operations in a few select locations without any operational issues. We are excited by the commercial developments and opportunities here. We also continued to invest for growth and have made a couple of major additional spectrum acquisitions recently in the DRC and Kenya in anticipation of continued strong data demand growth in these markets.

We continue to target growth ahead of the market this year and, despite inflationary pressures, our continued focus on cost efficiencies should also support margin resilience. Longer term, the opportunities for sustainable profitable growth stemming from our underpenetrated markets for each of mobile voice, data and mobile money services remain hugely attractive, and we are confident of continuing to deliver on our growth strategy.’

Airtel Africa plc (‘Airtel Africa’ or ‘Group’) results for the quarter ended 30 June 2022 are unaudited and in the opinion of management, include all adjustments necessary for the fair presentation of the results of the same period. The financial information has been prepared based on International Accounting Standard 34 (IAS 34) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) approved for use in the UK by the UK Accounting Standards Endorsement Board (UKEB) and apply the same accounting policies, presentation and methods of calculation as those followed in the preparation of the Group’s annual consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2022 except to the extent required/ prescribed by IAS 34. This report should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and related notes for the year ended 31 March 2022. The comparative information has been drawn based on Airtel Africa plc’s audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2022. Comparative quarterly information is drawn from the unaudited IAS 34 financials of the respective quarters. All comparatives and references to the ‘prior period’ or ‘previous period’ in this report are for the reported metrics for the quarter ended 30 June 2021.

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