Airtel Africa has told investors that the company experienced a mixed bag performance for the nine-month period ended 31 December 2024 December 2024.
Africa’s foremost telecommunication company announced a profit after tax of $248 million approximately N190.4 billion in the period under review while it also recorded a boost in its financial inclusion penetration in the countries it operates.
In the company’s financial statement filed on the Nigeria Exchange Limited, the company recorded growth in its revenue, with mobile money transactions increasing by 29.6 per cent year-on-year to reach $731 million while the revenue from mobile services also surged by 21.3 per cent, contributing significantly to the overall performance.
However, despite these gains, the company experienced an 11.9 per cent decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation due to ongoing inflationary pressures and currency fluctuations in some of its markets.
Airtel Africa’s mobile subscriber base saw a notable increase, rising by 7.9 per cent to 163.1 million users, which helped drive the growth in revenue, particularly from data services. Data customer penetration continues to rise, with a 13.8 per cent increase in data customers to 71.4 million.
Data usage per customer increased by 32.3 per cent to 6.9 GBs, with smartphone penetration increasing by 5.2 per cent to reach 44.2 per cent.
The company also continues to invest heavily in expanding its network, with capital expenditures (Capex) totalling $456 m (about N352 bn) for the period.
The continued investment to increase financial inclusion across our markets contributed to an 18.3 per cent increase in mobile money subscribers to 44.3 million. Transaction value in Q3’25 increased by 33.3 per cent in constant currency1 with annualised transaction value of $146 billion.
Data ARPU growth of 15.0 per cent and mobile money ARPU growth of 11.8 per cent in constant currency continued to support overall ARPUs which rose 12.0 per cent 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 20.8 per cent with the rollout of 2,850 sites and approximately 2,600 kms of fibre.
Revenues of $3,638 million grew by 20.4 per cent in constant currency but declined by 5.8 per cent in reported currency as currency devaluation continued to impact reported revenue trends.
Strong execution supported a further quarter of accelerating growth with Q3’25 revenue growth of 21.3 per cent in constant currency and reported currency revenue growth of 2.5 per cent.
Across the group, mobile services revenue grew by 18.8 per cent in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 9.8 per cent and data revenue growth of 29.5 per cent. Mobile money revenue grew by 29.6 per cent in constant currency.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for the nine-month period declined by 11.9 per cent in reported currency to $1,681 million with EBITDA margins of 46.2 per cent impacted by increased fuel prices and the lower contribution of Nigeria to the Group.
However, following initial successes of its cost efficiency programme, EBITDA margins have expanded from 45.3 per cent in Q1 2025 to 46.9 per cent in Q3 2025.
In Q3 2025, profit after tax benefitted from an exceptional gain of $94 million (net of tax) following the naira and Tanzanian shilling appreciation. However, over the nine-month period ending 31 December 2024, profit after tax of $248 million was impacted by $57 million 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 cash flows.
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.
Significantly, capital expenditure (Capex) of $456 million was 7.8 per cent lower compared to prior period. Capex guidance for the full year remains between $725 million and $750 million as we continue to invest for future growth.
The company has been consistently reducing its foreign currency debt exposure, having paid down $739 million of foreign currency debt over the last year.
Furthermore, 92 per cent of its OpCo debt (excl. lease liabilities) is now in local currency, up from 79 per cent a year ago.
Leverage has increased from 1.3x to 2.4x primarily reflecting the $1.2 billion increase in lease liabilities arising from the extension of its 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 $100 million buyback, in December 2024 the group announced the commencement of a second share buyback programme that will return up to $100 million 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.
Speaking on the trading update, 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.”
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