THE SENIOR ANALYST
Jan 2014
4QFY2013. Consolidated mobile - India & South
Asia revenue grew 6% qoq to 11,992cr.
Africa Telecom Business
Performance Highlights:
Domestic Telecom Business:
1. Bharti Airtel’s consolidated revenue for Q1
FY2014 stood at 20,300cr, down .8% q-o-q. On an
adjusted basis, revenues grew by 3.5% q-o-q, led
by strong performance in the Indian segment.
Profitability was hit due to higher tax expense
with tax rate coming in at ~55%.
2. Average revenue per minute (ARPM), grew at
4% qoq to Rs 0.44/min. This was mainly due to
increased tariffs and reduction in freebies after a
bruising three year price war.
3. The Indian mobility business reported healthy
KPIs with 4.0% qoq growth in voice. The overall
subscriber base grew by 1.4% qoq with end of
period (EoP) subscriber base standing at 191mn
while minutes of usage (MOU) remained almost
flat qoq at 455min. Mobile traffic grew by 2.1%
qoq to 258bn min. Consequently, the overall as
well as voice ARPU grew by 3.8% and 3.9% qoq to
200/month and 166/month respectively.
4. VAS as a percentage of mobility revenue
marginally declined to 17.3% from 17.4% in
4QFY2013. The growth in non-voice revenues was
led by growth in data revenue, which grew from
6.5% to 7.4% of total mobile revenues. Data
ARPU increased to 63 from 55 in 4QFY2013. The
data customer base of the company has
increased by 7.1% qoq to 46.6mn. Data usage per
subscriber increased to 203MB from 187MB in
1. For 1QFY2014, Zain Africa’s revenue declined
by 5.2% qoq to US$1,062mn as a result of
political unrest in North Africa (Nigeria - which
contributes around 39% to the company’s total
African revenues). Subscriber growth moderated
to 0.48mn vs a quarterly run-rate of 2mn. MOU
grew by 8.5% qoq to 134min, leading to traffic on
network growth of 11.2% qoq. Consequently, the
ARPM declined by 14.7% qoq. ARPU declined
7.5% qoq to US$5.5.
2. The EBITDA during the quarter declined
marginally by 0.6% qoq to US$885mn. The
EBITDA margin stood at 26.7%, expanding
by140bp qoq. The net loss during the quarter
increased to US$106mn vs US$90mn in
4QFY2013.
3. Full year FY2013 capex for the Africa business
stood at 3,940cr vs 7,166cr in FY2012.
Telemedia Service
The revenue of the telemedia business
declined 0.4% qoq to 948cr. On an adjusted basis,
revenues of telemedia actually grew by 7% qoq.
Bharti’s subscriber base in this business reported
a net addition of 1,406 subscribers to 3.3mn. The
EBITDA margin of this business declined 1.7% qoq
to 39.7%.
Passive Infrastructure Service
Revenues from passive infrastructure services
declined 2% qoq to 1,283cr. The EBITDA declined
by 7% qoq to 574cr. The total towers for Bharti
Infratel and Indus Towers stood at 82,321 and
1,11,983, respectively. Tenancy during the
quarter remained flat on a sequential basis at
1.91x and 1.99x for Bharti Infratel and Indus
Towers, respectively.
Telecom Industry
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