Airtel Africa grows customer base but FX dampens Q1 results

India-owned, Africa-focused telecoms group Airtel Africa saw first-quarter revenues rise by almost a fifth at constant currencies, but reported sales dropped sharply due to the ongoing currency devaluation in Nigeria.

The company, which is majority owned by Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel, said revenues totalled $1.16bn in the three months to 30 June, up 19% at constant FX but down 16.1% on a reported basis, mainly due to a falling naira in Nigeria.

Airtel Africa swung to a profit after tax of $31m for the period, compared with a loss of $151m the year before. Constant currency EBITDA increased 11.3% whilst reported currency EBITDA declined by 23.3% to $523m.

The EBITDA margin reduced to 45.3% from 49.5% a year earlier, which the company put down to a substantial increase in fuel prices across its markets and the naira devaluation.

Total customer numbers rose 8.6% to 155.4m during the period, with data customers growing 13.4% to 64.4m.

"A strong capital structure is critical to enabling these ambitions and future proofing our ambitious growth targets," said chief executive Sunil Taldar.

"During the quarter, we fully repaid the outstanding debt due at the HoldCo and we remain committed to further reduce foreign currency exposure across the group to limit the impact of currency devaluation on our business. The growth opportunity across our markets remains compelling and we continue to focus on margin improvement as indicated in our FY'24 results."

Shares were down nearly 4% at 110.6p in early deals on Thursday.