The financial results for Airtel Africa for the second quarter of 2022 (ended 30 June) have been revealed.
The corporation, which is present in 14 African states, reports that revenue grew by 13 percent in reported currency to $1.257 million. Contrastingly, currency terms revenue grew by 15.3%.
Airtel Africa adds that the total revenues, for mobile services and mobile money services combined, grew in Nigeria by 18.3%, in East Africa by 14.1% and in Francophone Africa by 11.7%.
In particular, mobile services revenue in Nigeria grew by 18.3%, in East Africa by 11.1%, and in Francophone Africa by 10.6% (and across the Group by 14.2%, with voice revenue up by 11.3% and data revenue up by 19.8%).
Mobile Money revenue grew by 26.5%, driven by a growth of 26.9% in East Africa and 25.4% in Francophone Africa.
Operating profit grew by 20.6% to $425m in reported currency.
Profit after tax jumped by 25.3% to $178 million.
The total customer base increased to 131.6 million, up 8.9%, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 9.7%) and mobile money services (customer base up 19.7%).
Airtel Kenya
Kenya’s arm of Airtel has not been doing well for an extended period. It has been eclipsed by local leader, Safaricom, which rakes substantial revenues from mobile services and mobile money. However, it would appear that other Airtel Africa markets have been doing great based on the reported numbers above.
Airtel has since split its mobile money product, Airtel Money, from the company, which is now under a different company named Airtel Money Kenya Limited. The company has since appointed a new board chair.
It also sold a notable share of its mobile money business. Specifically, it sold 25.77 percent of its mobile money product Airtel Money in a deal that sought to raise more cash for the company’s operations. The sale saw four companies give Airtel Kenya $550 million after the transaction. They were Rise Fund, which invested $200 million, followed by Mastercard at $100 million. Qatar Holding LLC invested $200 million, while Chimera Investment LLC parted with $50 million to round up the stake’s purchase.
Just the other day, it purchased an additional 4G spectrum from the Communications Authority of Kenya at USD 40 million to boost LTE coverage.
Segun Ogunsanya, Airtel Africa CEO says:
“I am pleased to report that the Group has continued to post double-digit revenue growth, margin improvement, and strong earnings growth. I am also particularly pleased with our ongoing strengthening of the balance sheet which continued after the period ended, with early repayment of $450m of debt at the Group level.
As we flagged in our full year announcement, this quarter we have faced headwinds from outbound voice call barring for customers who had not yet registered their National Identification Numbers in Nigeria and the loss of site sharing revenue in those OpCos where we recently sold towers. Inflation is also having an impact on our cost base, particularly on energy costs, but our continued efficiency drives have ensured that we have still been able to increase our margins, albeit at a slightly slower rate.”
