Bharti Airtel’s Africa unit reports net profit of $83 mn for March quarter

Bharti Airtel’s Africa operations made a net profit of $83 million for the quarter ended March 31. In the corresponding period a year before, it had seen a net loss of $49 million.

The profit this time was mainly on account of increase in users of its Airtel Money platform and more data consumption. It is the first time that Airtel separately announced the results for its Africa unit.

There was a rise over a year of nearly 16 per cent in the quarter, the final one of financial year 2018-19, in earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda), at $354 million.

“The total (Africa) customer base using the Airtel Money platform increased by 24 per cent to 14.2 million, as compared to 11.5 million the previous year,” said the company.