Airtel Africa maintained a strong and growing profit, as the revenue grew by 14.2% to $3,908m, with Q4'21 reported revenue growth of 15.4%. In addition, Constant currency underlying revenue growth was 19.4%, with Q4'21 growth of 21.7%. Growth was recorded across all regions: Nigeria up 21.9%, East Africa up 23.5% and Francophone Africa up 10%; and across key services, with revenues for voice up 11.0%, data up 31.2% and mobile money up 35.5%. EBITDA earnings was $1,792m, up 18.3% in reported currency, and growing 25.2% in constant currency. As for their margin profits, it was 46.1%, adding 181 basis points (210 basis points higher in constant currency). Underlying EBITDA margin for Q4'21 was 47.7%, an increase of 389 basis points in constant currency.
Airtel Africa also increased profitability and cash flow, by operating profit increased 24.2% to $1,119m in reported currency, and by 32.8% in constant currency, as well Free cash flow was $647m, up 42.8% on the prior year.
Basic EPS was 9.0 cents, down 12.6%, largely due to prior year exceptional items and a one-off derivative gain. Excluding these, basic restated EPS rose 44.5%. EPS before exceptional items was 8.2 cents. Plus, our customer base grew by 6.9% to 118.2 million, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 14.5%) and mobile money services (customer base up 18.5%). The recent slowdown in customer base growth has been due to new SIM registration regulations in Nigeria. Along with, the Board has recommended a final dividend of 2.5 cents per share, making the total dividend for FY21 4.0 cents per share.
|
Alternative performance measures 4 |
GAAP measures |
|||||||
|
Description |
March-21 |
March-20 |
Reported currency |
Constant currency |
Description |
March-21 |
March-20 |
Reported currency |
|
$m |
$m |
change % |
change % |
$m |
$m |
change % |
||
|
Underlying revenue 1 |
3,888 |
3,422 |
13.6% |
19.4% |
Revenue |
3,908 |
3,422 |
14.2% |
|
Underlying EBITDA |
1,792 |
1,515 |
18.3% |
25.2% |
Operating profit |
1,119 |
901 |
24.2% |
|
Underlying EBITDA margin |
46.1% |
44.3% |
181 bps |
210 bps |
Profit before tax 2 |
697 |
598 |
16.7% |
|
Free cash flow |
647 |
453 |
42.8% |
|
Profit after tax 2 |
415 |
408 |
1.8% |
|
EPS before exceptional items (cents) |
8.2 |
7.3 |
12.8% |
|
Basic EPS (cents) |
9.0 |
10.3 |
(12.6%) |
|
EPS before exceptional items (cents) - restated 3 |
8.2 |
6.9 |
18.2% |
|
Basic EPS (cents) -restated 3 |
9.0 |
9.8 |
(8.4%) |
Raghunath Mandava, chief executive officer, said on the trading update, "In these challenging times I want to say a huge thank you to all our employees, our business partners, and governments and regulators who have supported us, and in turn facilitated our continued support to the economies and communities we serve.
“Our performance has been strong, with reported growth of 13.6% in underlying revenue and 18.3% in underlying EBITDA, and constant currency growth of 19.4% and 25.2% respectively. Contributions to this growth came across all regions, with particular improvement in Francophone Africa, and across all our major services, with mobile money, data and voice each posting double-digit revenue growth.”
He added, “Our customer base also grew strongly for most of the year with new customer registration requirements in Nigeria stemming our onboarding of new customers in the final quarter, and these restrictions were lifted in second half of April.
“In line with our strategy of unlocking value in our mobile money business, we will soon welcome two new minority investors (The Rise Fund and Mastercard) in agreed transactions which value this part of our business at $2.65bn, as well as bringing $300m into the Group. We have also agreed to sell more of our tower portfolio, yielding yet more cash for the business.”
