Mobile Money boosts Airtel Africa Q3 earnings
Airtel Africa subscribers are embracing digital financial services in large numbers, creating potential for the pan-African telco to deliver solutions that improve financial inclusion on the continent.
The telco, which provides telecom and mobile money services in 14 countries, announced its nine-month results for the period ending December 31, 2024, yesterday.
During the quarter, Airtel reported that ongoing investment in financial inclusion across its markets resulted in an 18.3% increase in mobile money subscribers to 44.3 million.
The telco's third-quarter mobile money transaction value increased by 33.3% in constant currency, to $146 billion on an annualised basis.
It also stated that data's average revenue per user (ARPU) growth of 15.0% and mobile money ARPU growth of 11.8% in constant currency continued to underpin overall ARPUs, which increased 12.0% year-on- year (YoY) in constant currency.
In terms of other financial metrics, Airtel's revenues of $3,638 million increased by 20.4% in constant currency but fell by 5.8% in reported currency as currency depreciation continued to have an influence on reported revenue trends.
The telco said its strong execution enabled another quarter of accelerated growth, with Q3 revenue increase of 21.3% in constant currency and reported currency revenue growth of 2.5%.
However, EBITDA for the nine-month period fell by 11.9% in reported currency to $1,681 million, with EBITDA margins of 46.2% hit by higher fuel prices and Nigeria's reduced contribution to the company.
Airtel stated that following the initial successes of our cost-cutting initiative, EBITDA margins have increased from 45.3% in Q1'25 to 46.9% in Q3'25.
The telco's earnings after tax increased by $94 million (net of tax) as the naira and Tanzanian shilling appreciated.
Furthermore, it stated that during the nine-month period ending December 31, 2024, profit after tax of $248 million was impacted by $57 million in unusual derivative and foreign exchange losses (net of tax).
Earnings per share before exceptional items fell from 7.1 cents in the previous period to 6.2 cents, principally due to increasing expenditures related with the American Tower Company contract renewal, which Airtel said had no effect on cashflows.
Sunil Taldar, CEO. Airtel Group, commented: “We have delivered an improvement in both the operating and financial performance in the last quarter driven by our refined strategy which is focussed on delivering great customer experience across all touch points.
“An increasingly important component of this is to provide a best-in-class network, digitise and simplify the customer journey.
“Our focus on speed and quality execution is enabling us to unlock the substantial opportunities for growth across our markets and business segments, where demand remains significant, resulting in a further acceleration of constant currency revenue growth to 21.3% in the most recent quarter.”
He continued: “We remain committed to investing for the future by expanding our distribution and network to ensure that we capture this significant growth opportunity on offer.
“Despite the challenging environment for many of our customers, we continue to see strong demand for our services as we enable connectivity and facilitate access to the digital economy.
“The scale of data traffic growth across our markets – an increase of 49% over the last year – is testament to the investments we have made and the relentless focus on our strategy to create value for all our stakeholders.”