Airtel Africa Plc has released its results for the nine-month (9M) period ended December 31, 2024.
The company’s revenues of $3.638 billion grew by 20.4 percent in constant currency but declined by 5.8 percent in reported currency as currency devaluation continued to impact reported revenue trends. Its operating profit decreased by 16.4 percent to $1.081billion from $1.293billion in 9M’23.
Airtel Africa Plc through Barclays Capital Securities Limited (Barclays) is currently doing share buy-back in newest move to return $100 million to its shareholders. The share buy-back programme is expected to be phased over two tranches, with the first tranche anticipated to end on or before April 24, 2025. The first tranche will amount to a maximum of $50 million.
The company said strong execution supported a further quarter of accelerating growth with Q3’25 revenue growth of 21.3percent in constant currency and reported currency revenue growth of 2.5percent.
Across the Group, mobile services revenue grew by 18.8 percent in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 9.8 percent and data revenue growth of 29.5 percent. Mobile money revenue grew by 29.6percent in constant currency. EBITDA for the nine-month period declined by 11.9 percent in reported currency to $1.681 billion with EBITDA margins of 46.2 percent impacted by increased fuel prices and the lower contribution of Nigeria to the Group. However, following initial successes of our cost efficiency programme, EBITDA margins have expanded from 45.3percent in Q1’25 to 46.9 percent in Q3’25.
In Q3’25, profit after tax (PAT) benefitted from an exceptional gain of $94million (net of tax) following the naira and Tanzanian shilling appreciation. However, over the nine-month period ending December 31, 2024, profit after tax of $248million was impacted by $57million of exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses (net of tax).
EPS before exceptional items declined from 7.1 cents in the prior period to 6.2 cents, primarily impacted by increased costs associated with the ATC contract renewal,which had no impact on cashflows. Basic EPS of 4.4 cents compares to negative (1.6 cents) in the prior period, predominantly reflecting lower derivative and foreign exchange losses in the current period.
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Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer, Airtel Africa said “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 21.3percent in the most recent quarter.
“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 49percent 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.
“As we have communicated previously, our cost efficiency programme continues to deliver EBITDA margin improvements, with a further expansion of margins in Q3’25. We continue to focus on further margin improvement. Furthermore, our capital structure remains robust with just 8percent of OpCo debt in foreign currency – a substantial improvement over the last year. This, together with continued confidence in the outlook for the business, has enabled the Board to announce a second share buyback programme, which will return up to $100million to shareholders.
The recent signs of currency stabilisation in some markets and the recent decision from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) regarding tariff adjustments in Nigeria are encouraging and signal a more stable and supportive operating environment. While challenges remain, these developments provide a firm foundation for growth and improved market conditions.”
Airel Africa’s total customer base grew by 7.9 percent to 163.1 million. Data customer penetration continues to rise, with a 13.8 percent increase in data customers to 71.4 million. Data usage per customer increased by 32.3 percent to 6.9 GBs, with smartphone penetration increasing by 5.2 percent to reach 44.2 percent.
The company’s continued investment to increase financial inclusion across its markets contributed to an 18.3percent increase in mobile money subscribers to 44.3 million. Transaction value in Q3’25 increased by 33.3 percent in constant currency with annualised transaction value of $146billion.
Data ARPU growth of 15 percent and mobile money ARPU growth of 11.8percent in constant currency continued to support overall ARPUs which rose 12 percent year-on-year (YoY) in constant currency.
Customer experience remains core to our strategy with sustained network investment during the period. In line with our strategic priorities, data capacity across our network has increased by 20.8percent with the rollout of 2,850 sites and approximately 2,600 kms of fibre.
Capital allocation
Capex of $456million was 7.8 percent lower compared to prior period. Capex guidance for the full year remains between $725million and $750million as we continue to invest for future growth.
Airtel has been consistently reducing its foreign currency debt exposure, having paid down $739million of foreign currency debt over the last year. Furthermore, 92 percent of its OpCo debt (excluding lease liabilities) is now in local currency, up from 79 percent a year ago.
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