Profit before exceptional items and tax grew marginally to Rs 5,290.3 crore in Q1 FY25 as compared to Rs 5,269.2 crore reported in Q1 FY24. The firm reported exceptional loss of Rs 735 crore during the quarter.

EBITDA increased 1.0% to Rs 19,944 crore in Q1 FY25 as against to Rs 19,746 crore reported in Q1 FY24. EBITDA margin reduced to 51.8% in Q1 FY25 from 52.7% in Q1 FY24.

Total capex spend for the quarter was at Rs 8,007 crore.

Consolidated mobile data traffic at 19,130 PBs in the quarter with a healthy YoY growth of 26.9%.

During the quarter, overall customer base stood at approximately 568 million across 16 countries.

India revenues for Q1 FY25 were at Rs 29,046 crore, increased by 10.1% YoY. Mobile revenues grew by 10.5% YoY on the back of improved realisations during the quarter and sustained customer additions.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter stood at Rs 211, up 5.5% as compared to Rs 200 in Q1 FY24 driven by sustained focus on acquiring quality customers and delivering greater value to them.

The telecom operator said that it strengthened its leadership position in postpaid segment with net adds of 0.8 million (Mn) in Q1’25 thereby reaching a customer base of 24 Mn.

The telecom operator continued to market share in smartphone segment saw sustained improvement with addition of 29.7 Mn, increase of 12.9% YoY. The firm continued to deliver industry leading ARPU growth along with growing average data usage per data customer.

Airtel Business delivered revenue growth of 8.3% YoY by leveraging the converged portfolio of Airtel. The emerging digital products are also yielding good results.

Airtel's Homes delivered a revenue growth of 17.6% YoY, driven by healthy customer additions. During the quarter, it has accelerated FWA expansion, which would expand addressable market. The will company focus on digitization and acquiring high value customers led to 348 K customer additions in the quarter to reach to a total base of 8.0 million. The firm continues to expand its home-pass network through own and asset light local cable operator partnership model. WiFi services are now live in 1,317 cities.

Digital TV remained stable with 16.3 million customer base at the end of quarter. The company continue to gain customer market share with its market specific strategy and differentiated converged offerings to accelerate the business growth.

As of 30 June 2024, the Net Debt-EBITDA ratio, including lease impact, stands at 2.54 times.

Meanwhile, Africa revenue (in constant currency) was up 19% YoY. EBITDA margin stood at 45.3%, down 313 bps YoY. EBIT margin was at 29%. Customer base stood at 155 million. Capex for the quarter was Rs 1,225 crore.

Gopal Vittal, MD, Bharti Airtel, said, “Q1FY25 was yet another steady quarter with India revenue growing at 1.9% sequentially and sustained EBITDA margins expansion to 53.7%. Our stringent focus on driving cost efficiencies is reflected in strong operating leverage. Africa continues to deliver strong underlying constant currency revenue growth. India operations added 6.7 Mn smartphone customers and reported an improved ARPU of Rs 211. Our postpaid strategy continues to yield results with 0.8 Mn net adds.

During the quarter, we accelerated pace on FWA services expansion across key towns. Our Wifi services (FTTH and FWA) are now available in over 1300 cities. Our digital portfolio is shaping up well and it is geared for accelerated growth to add strength to our already diversified portfolio.

In the recently concluded spectrum auction, we successfully renewed spectrum that was expiring in 6 circles and further bolstered our sub-giga hertz and mid-band holding in key circles by investing Rs. 6,857 Crores. The industry saw much needed action on tariff repair, which is positive for industry’s financial health amid ongoing large network capex. We continue to believe that industry needs over Rs 300 ARPU at the minimum for financial stability.”

Bharti Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 500 million customers in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa.

Shares of Bharti Airtel fell 1.86% to settle at Rs 1,466 on the BSE.