Profit before exceptional items and tax was at Rs 5,233.5 crore in Q4 FY24, registering growth of 4.37% from Rs 5,014 crore recorded in Q4 FY23. Exceptional items stood at Rs 2,455.5 crore during the quarter.

EBITDA increased 4.2% to Rs 19,590 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared with Rs 18,807 crore. EBITDA margin reduced to 52.1% in Q4 FY24 from 52.2% in Q4 FY23.

Total capex spend for the quarter was at Rs 10,516.3 crore, down 8.04% YoY.

Consolidated mobile data traffic at 17,702 PBs in the quarter with a healthy YoY growth of 26.2%.

During the quarter, overall customer base stood at approximately 562 million across 16 countries.

India revenues for Q4 FY24 were at Rs 28,513 crore, increased by 12.9% YoY. Mobile revenues grew by 12.9% YoY on account of improved realisation as well as strong 4G/5G customer additions during the year.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter stood at Rs 209, up 8.29% as compared to Rs 193 in Q4 FY23 driven by sustained focus on acquiring quality customers and mix improvement.

The telecom operator said that it strengthened its leadership position in Postpaid segment with net adds of 0.8 million (Mn) in Q4’24 thereby reaching a customer base of 51.2 Mn (including IoT).

The telecom operator continued to garner market share of 4G/5G customers and added 28.6 Mn 4G/5G data customers to company’s network over last year, an increase of 12.8% YoY. We continue to deliver industry leading ARPU growth along with growing average data usage per data customer.

Airtel Business delivered revenue growth of 14.1% YoY by leveraging the converged portfolio of Airtel and harvesting the rapidly increasing demand for data and connectivity solutions. The emerging digital products are also yielding strong results.

Airtel's Homes business sustained its growth momentum and delivered a revenue growth of 20% YoY, result of company’s strategy to harness the growing demand of high-speed and reliable broadband in India. The focus on digitization and acquiring high value customers led to 331 K customer additions in the quarter to reach to a total base of 7.6 Mn. The company continued to accelerate its homepass rollout on the back of asset light local cable operator partnership model, the firm are now live in 1,290 cities.

Digital TV continues to consolidate its strong market position with 16.1 Mn customer base at the end of quarter. Company’s focus on market specific strategy coupled with simplified pricing and convergence approach ensured that the business continues to grow its market share.

As of 31 March 2024, the Net Debt-EBITDA ratio, including lease impact, stands at 2.61 times.

Meanwhile, Africa revenue (in constant currency) was up 23.1% YoY. EBITDA margin stood at 47.4%, down 148 bps YoY. EBIT margin was at 31.9%. Customer base stood at 153 million. Capex for the quarter was Rs 2,019 crore.

Gopal Vittal, MD, Bharti Airtel, said, “We ended the year on a strong note with consistent performance across all businesses, both on customer metrics as well as financial parameters. India revenue (adjusted for Beetel) grew by 1.7% with EBITDA margin expanding to 54.1%, despite one day less in the quarter. Consolidated performance was impacted primarily by the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira. We added 7.8 million smart phone customers and delivered an industry leading ARPU of Rs. 209. Our relentless focus on improving customer experience has resulted in 20% churn reduction during the quarter.

Our simple and clear strategy coupled with razor-sharp focus on execution enabled us to end the quarter with life-time high market share across all businesses. Our efforts on digitizing Airtel are now gathering velocity and is being visibly felt across all parts of our operations. At the same time, our return on capital employed continues to remain low due to the absence of tariff repair in the industry.”

Meanwhile, the company’s board has declared a dividend of Rs 8 per share of face value of Rs 5 each and Rs 2 per partly paid up equity share of face value of Rs 5 each ( paid up Rs 1.25 per equity share) for financial year2023-2024.

Bharti Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 500 million customers in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa.

The scrip shed 0.09% to settle at Rs 1,285.40 on the BSE.