Airtel Africa Plc said profit after tax rose 20% to $452 million in the six months through September, from $376 million a year earlier, as demand for data and mobile money kept revenue growing at a double-digit pace across its markets.
Revenue climbed 28.2% to $3.82 billion, or 20.8% in constant currency. Data revenue grew 28%, and mobile money revenue rose 25.8% in constant currency. By region, Nigeria grew fastest in the second quarter at 24.4%, followed by Francophone Africa at 20.3% and East Africa at 18.6%.
The underlying EBITDA margin hit a record 50.4% in the second quarter, up 144 basis points, even as higher fuel costs pushed up expenses. Profit was reduced by $55 million of exceptional items, tied to an in-principle settlement at a subsidiary and expenses from the Airtel Money initial public offering. Basic earnings per share rose to 10.2 cents from 8.3 cents.
The company’s customer base grew 11.6% to 193.9 million. Mobile money customers rose 22.4% to 60.9 million, and annualised transaction value grew 36.5% to $275 billion. Smartphone penetration reached 51.6%, and smartphone users consumed 13.3 gigabytes of data on average, up from 10.1 gigabytes.
Capital expenditure more than doubled to $657 million as the company added about 4,200 sites, partly to support its home broadband business. Leverage fell to 1.6 times from 2.1 times. The board declared an interim dividend of 3.1 cents per share, up 9.2%, and the company returned $108.7 million to shareholders through buybacks.
Chief Executive Officer Sunil Taldar said Airtel Africa kept its shareholding through the Airtel Money IPO and remains a long-term strategic shareholder. He cautioned that margins will keep depending on fuel costs and the broader macroeconomic environment, but said confidence in growth underpins the decision to accelerate investment.
