India’s Bharti Airtel group has registered a 3.6% increase in turnover year-on-year for the quarter ended 31 March 2015 to INR230.16 billion (USD3.63 billion), as improvements in its domestic market more than offset falling revenues across its African footprint. Turnover from Airtel’s India and South Asia unit was up 11% y-o-y from INR153.30 billion to INR170.21 billion, whilst revenue from its African division slumped from INR70.62 billion to INR62.15 billion. EBITDA for the group was INR80.51 billion (+10.0% y-o-y) and net profit grew 30.5% annually to INR12.55 billion. Due largely to an expensive bill for the renewal of its spectrum in India, CAPEX nearly doubled y-o-y to INR64.46 billion from INR33.28 billion.
In India, Airtel’s user base grew by 10% y-o-y to 226.02 million, including 19.44 million 3G users (+90%). Monthly ARPU of INR198 was up slightly compared to a year ago (INR196), but down compared to the previous quarter (INR202). In Africa, however, whilst the group reported steady subscriber growth of 10% y-o-y to 76.26 million, ARPU has continued to fall, dropping 20% y-o-y to USD4.4 compared to USD5.5 in March 2014 and USD5.1 in December 2014.