Airtel Africa records after-tax profit of $79 million
By Ralph Tathagata
With the help of an exceptional tax gain of $80 million, Airtel Africa has reported an after-tax profit of $79 million for the half-year ended 30 September 2024. The latest report marks a 726.3 per cent increase over the company’s bottom line for the same period of last year, when Airtel Africa incurred a net loss of $13 million.
Airtel Africa’s profit before tax stood at $178 million, up from $12 million.
According to the telecom service provider, the tax gain resulted from derivative and foreign exchange losses from the devaluation of the Nigerian naira, Nigeria is the biggest market of the telco.
The company’s stock remained unchanged in Lagos after the financial report was issued, but fell 5.5 per cent in London, where it is dual listed.
“We have already seen strong progress, with an acceleration in constant currency revenue growth over the last quarter as demand for ourselves remain strong, reflected in the 48% growth in data volumes over the first half of the year, despite the challenging backdrop in some of our markets,” said CEO Sunil Taldar.
“Furthermore, we have seen our cost optimisation programme already show initial green shoots, which combined with our operational leverage, has contributed to an expansion of our EBITDA margins in Q2’25 compared to the previous quarter,” he added.
Revenue for the period slid 9.7 per cent to $2.4 billion as two of its key income sources – voice revenue and data revenue – recorded a decline.
The company’s mobile money division expanded its subscriber base by 13.4 per cent to 41.5 million during the period under review.
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