African total subscriber base for the operating year ending on 31 January 2024 grew by 7.9 % to 163.1 million, data customer penetration continues to rise, with a 13.8% increase in data customers to 71.4 million and data usage per customer increased by 32.3% to 6.9 GBs, with smartphone penetration increasing by 5.2% to reach 44.2%.
Mobile money subscribers increased by 18.3% to 44.3 million.
Airtel recorded an annual transaction value of 33.3% to $146bn; data average revenue per user ( ARPU) grew by 15 % while that of mobile money recorded 11.8% and overall ARPU went up by 12%.
Data capacity across the regional network increased by 20.8% with the rollout of 2,850 sites and approximately 2,600 k, while revenue of $3,638m grew by 20.4% in constant currency but declined by 5.8% in reported currency as currency devaluation continued to impact reported revenue trends.
Airtel Africa reports mobile services, voice, data and mobile money revenue grew at 18.8 %, 9.8%, 29.5% and 29.6% respectively.
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The Group’s earnings before interest, tax, and amortization expenses are deducted, EBITDA, for the nine-month period declined by 11.9% in reported currency to $1,681m with EBITDA margins of 46.2% impacted by increased fuel prices and the lower contribution of Nigeria to the Group.
However, the company said following initial successes of its cost efficiency programme, EBITDA margins have expanded from 45.3% in Q1’25 to 46.9% in Q3’25 and in Q3’25, profit after tax benefitted from an exceptional gain of $94m (net of tax) following the naira and Tanzanian shilling appreciation.
The report said over the nine-month period ending 31 December 2024, profit after tax of $248m was impacted by $57m 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.
Capital allocation
“Capex of $456m was 7.8% lower compared to prior period. Capex guidance for the full year remains between $725m and $750m as we continue to invest for future growth.
“We have been consistently reducing our foreign currency debt exposure, having paid down $739m of foreign currency debt over the last year. Furthermore, 92% of our OpCo debt (excl. lease liabilities) is now in local currency, up from 79% a year ago.
“Leverage has increased from 1.3x to 2.4x primarily reflecting the $1.2bn increase in lease liabilities arising from the extension of our tower lease agreements with ATC as previously announced.
“To reflect the Group’s financial market debt position and reduce volatility associated with lease accounting under IFRS16, the Group has introduced ‘Lease-adjusted leverage’ as an additional APM in the current period. Lease-adjusted leverage increased from 0.7x in the prior period to 1.1x as of 31 December 2024 reflecting the impact of higher debt and lower lease-adjusted EBITDA given the translation impact arising from currency devaluation.
“Following the completion of the first $100m buyback, in December 2024 we announced the commencement of a second share buyback programme that will return up to $100m to shareholders. This reflects the Board’s confidence in the continued growth potential, the strength of the balance sheet and consistent cash accretion at the holding company level”, the report further said.
Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer, 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 21.3% 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 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.
“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 8% 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 $100m 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.”
