Airtel Africa PLC Shares 2021 3rd Quarter Results

Airtel Africa PLC just shared their 2021 3rd Quarter results here and these are the highlights:

• Reported revenue grew by 21.7% to $3,492m. 
• Constant currency underlying revenue grew by 24.8%. 
• Constant currency underlying revenue growth was recorded across all regions: Nigeria up 29.0%, East Africa up 24.4% and Francophone Africa up 19.0%; and across all key services, with revenue in Voice up 16.1%, and in Data and Mobile Money both  up 37.2%. 
• Underlying EBITDA was $1,703m, growing by 31.3% in reported currency with an EBITDA margin of 48.8%, an increase of 326 basis points led by both revenue growth and improved operational efficiencies.  
• Operating profit grew by 43.1% to $1,146m in reported currency. 
• Profit after tax almost doubled to $514m as higher profit before tax more than offset associated tax charges.  • Basic EPS was 11.7 cents, an increase of 113.8%, largely as a result of higher profit. EPS before exceptional items increased to  11.5 cents, up from 5.0 cents in the previous period. 
• Operating free cash flow grew by 42.2% to $1,271m and net cash generated from operating activities was up 23.1% to $1,499m. • Leverage ratio improved to 1.4x from 2.1x in the previous period. 
• The customer base expanded to 125.8 million, growing by 5.8%, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base  up 11.1%) and mobile money services (customer base up 19.6%). Customer base growth was affected by the NIN/SIM regulations  in Nigeria but returned to growth in this region in the third quarter; excluding Nigeria the customer base grew by 12.0%. 

Get the full report here: Airtel Africa PLC Q3 Results.

Segun Ogunsanya, Chief Executive Officer, on the trading update:  “A strong third quarter has contributed to a pleasing nine-month financial performance across all key metrics. Operationally we have continued to execute on our network and distribution expansion plans, driving continued strong growth in  ARPUs across voice, data and mobile money. We have also seen further improvement in our customer growth trends for the Group  with Nigeria returning to strong customer growth after a period affected by the implementation of new ‘know your customer’  requirements, posting 1.9 million net additions in the third quarter, taking total Group customer additions to 3.1 million. I am particularly pleased with developments in Nigeria, where in November we received approval in principle for both a payment  service bank (mobile money) licence and a super-agent licence. We are now working closely with the Central Bank to meet all its  conditions to receive the final operating licences and commence operations. This will enable us to expand our digital financial products  and reach the millions of Nigerians that do not have access to traditional financial services.  

We continued to strengthen our balance sheet, with our leverage ratio now 1.4 times underlying EBITDA, thanks both to continued  increases in operating cash flow delivery and to over $550m of cash that has now been received from minority investments into our  mobile money business. 

We will continue to invest in expanding and evolving our platform to further deepen both financial and digital inclusion across Africa. I  continue to see huge growth potential across voice, data and mobile money and our strategy is delivering against this opportunity. Our  sustained investments in both network and distribution expansion will help to ensure that both the communities and economies across  our footprint will continue to benefit from increased and affordable connectivity and financial inclusion. We are committed to continue  to improve the delivery of our services to our customers, with sustainability at the heart of our continued purpose to transform lives  across Africa.”

Airtel Africa PLC results for nine-month period ended 31 December 2021 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 2021 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 2021. Comparative annual information  has been drawn based on Airtel Africa PLC’s Audited Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2021; with  quarterly and nine-month period information drawn from the unaudited IAS 34 financials of the respective periods. All comparatives  and references to the ‘prior period’ or ‘previous period’ in this report are for the reported metrics for the nine-month period ended 31  December 2020 unless otherwise stated. 

Source: Airtel Zambia