Bharti Airtel has reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 830 crore for the third quarter ended December 2021, a decline of 3 per cent year-on-year compared with Rs 854 crore in the corresponding previous period.

Airtel’s third-quarter revenue rose 12.6 per cent, helped by recent tariff hikes and subscriber additions.

The telecom firm’s board gave an enabling approval for raising up to Rs 7,500 crore through debt instruments. The board has also authorised the special committee of directors to decide (based on market conditions) on all matters related to such issuance of securities, including finalisation and approval of terms and conditions, quantum of tranche, and the timing.

Financing goals

In a regulatory filing, Airtel said the board of directors in its meeting on Tuesday reviewed the company’s routine financing and re-financing strategies, including any market maturities in due course.

“It has granted enabling approvals for such re-financing vide debt instruments (as and when deemed appropriate) through issuance of secured/ unsecured, listed/unlisted non-convertible debt securities, including debentures, bonds up to Rs 7,500 crore (or in equivalent foreign currency) in one or more tranches,” the company said.

The consolidated total revenue of the company grew by 13 per cent to Rs 29,867 crore from Rs 26,518 crore a year ago. The company said overall customer base stands at 485 million across 16 countries as of December 31 and total capital expenditure for the quarter is Rs 6,101 crore.

Airtel said its average revenue per user (ARPU) — a key performance indicator in the telecom industry — was Rs 163 for the third quarter, up from Rs 146 a year ago.

Airtel, in late-November, increased tariffs on prepaid plans, as did Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, while reiterating that the industry’s mobile ARPU needs to be at Rs 200, and eventually at Rs 300, for a financially healthy business model.

Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India and South Asia, said: “We have delivered another quarter of sustained performance. Overall sequential revenue growth was at 5.4 per cent.”

“The recent tariff revision for mobile services has gone down well and we are exiting the quarter with an industry-leading ARPU of Rs 163. The full impact of the revised mobile tariffs, however, will be visible in the fourth quarter,” he said.

Last month, Bharti Airtel had announced that tech titan Google will invest as much as USD 1 billion in the company for picking up a 1.28 per cent stake and scaling up offerings of India’s second-largest mobile phone operator.

Vittal said “Google’s recent investment is a strong validation of Airtel’s role in being a leading pioneer of India’s digital revolution. Our emerging digital services portfolio across Airtel IQ, AdTech, digital market place, Nxtra and digital banking positions us well to build an Airtel of the future.”

The company said it continues to garner strong share of the 4G customers in the market and 4G data customers increased by 18 per cent YoY to 195.5 million. The company has added 29.9 million 4G customers to its network over last year. ARPU continues to be the best in industry, average data usage per data customer at 18.3 Gbs/ month and voice usage per customer at 1,061 minutes/month, it said.