Telecoms firm Airtel Africa soared to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard on Monday after releasing forecast-topping interim results.
At 119p per share the Airtel share price was last 8% higher on the day.
Airtel — which provides telecoms and mobile money services in 14 African countries — said that revenues rose 2.3% during the six months to September, to $2.3 billion.
Stripping out the impact of exchange rate changes, sales were up 19.7% year on year.
Turnover dipped 4.7% during the second quarter, reflecting the devaluation of the Nigerian naira back in June. At constant currencies revenues grew 19% during the three months.
Operating profit rose 1.5% during between April and September, to $885 million. However, Airtel swung to a pre-tax loss of $13 million from a $330 million profit in the same 2022 period due to currency-related stresses.
The firm lifted the interim dividend 9% year on year, to 2.38 US cents per share.
Strength Across The Board
Airtel said that “all segments delivered double-digit constant currency revenue growth” in the first half. Mobile services revenue rose 18.3% on this basis, pushed by voice revenue growth of 11.5%, while data revenues rose 28.1%. Mobile money revenue soared 30.9% over the period.
During the first half, the number of customers on Airtel’s books increased to 147.7 million “as the penetration of mobile data and mobile money services continued to rise,” the company said. This was up 9.7% over the period.
Airtel saw customer numbers at its data and mobile money units rise 23% and 23.1% respectively during the first half, to 59.8 million and 36.5 million.
Operating free cash flow improved 4.5% to $990 million, the company said, while capital expenditure edged up fractionally to $312 million over the period.
Airtel kept its full-year spending target unchanged at between $800 million and $825 million. Spending clocked in at $748 million last year.
“Strong Operating Performance”
Chief executive Olusegun Ogunsanya said that that “I am pleased to report a strong operating performance for the group despite foreign exchange headwinds in many of our markets and specifically in Nigeria.”
He added that “the resilient growth in voice, data and mobile money usage levels reflects the inherent demand for these essential services across our footprint, and our six-pillar ‘win-with’ strategy continues to ensure we capture this growth opportunity by expanding our customer base and providing the platform to enable increased usage across the network.”
Despite rising fuel prices in Nigeria, Ogunsanya said that improved cost efficiencies should help Airtel to grow its EBITDA margin for the full year.
Margins improved by 70 basis points at actual currencies during the first half, to 49.6%. Group EBITDA rose 3.7% on the same basis to $1.3 billion.
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