By Barnabas Esiet.
Airtel Africa plc has announced its financial results for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2024, showing a strong revenue growth of 20.4% in constant currency, driven by customer base growth and ARPU increases.
The company’s total customer base grew by 7.9% to 163.1 million, with data customer penetration increasing by 13.8% to 71.4 million.
Data usage per customer also rose by 32.3% to 6.9 GBs, while smartphone penetration increased by 5.2% to 44.2%.
Mobile money revenue grew by 29.6% in constant currency, driven by strong growth in East Africa. The company’s mobile money transaction value increased by 33.3% in constant currency, with an annualized transaction value of $146 billion.
Despite the strong revenue growth, Airtel Africa’s reported revenue declined by 5.8% to $3,638 million due to significant currency devaluations in Nigeria, Malawi, and Zambia.
The company’s EBITDA declined by 11.9% in reported currency to $1,681 million, but increased by 15.3% in constant currency. The EBITDA margin declined by 323 basis points in reported currency to 46.2%.
Airtel Africa’s profit after tax was $248 million, impacted by exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses. Basic EPS was 4.4 cents, compared to a negative 1.6 cents in the prior period.
The company’s leverage increased to 2.4x due to the extension of its tower lease agreements with ATC, resulting in an approximate $1.2 billion increase in lease liabilities.
Airtel Africa’s CEO, Sunil Taldar, commented: “We have delivered an improvement in both the operating and financial performance in the last quarter driven by our refined strategy which is focused on delivering great customer experience across all touch points.”
The company has also announced the commencement of a second share buyback program, which will return up to $100 million to shareholders.
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