Bharti Airtel fell by 2.7% to a day’s low of Rs 1,617.55 on the BSE today, despite the company posting strong Q2 results, with consolidated net profit jumping 168% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 3,593 crore. However, the results were below Street estimates. The profit for the quarter was supported by strong average revenue per user (ARPU) growth and subscriber additions, although a Rs 318 crore exceptional loss caused it to miss estimates.
The Sunil Mittal-led telco’s consolidated revenue rose 12% YoY to Rs 41,473 crore in the July-September period, driven by strong momentum in India and sustained currency growth in Africa, the company said.
The revenue growth was also supported by sequential growth in ARPU—a key performance metric—to Rs 233, up from Rs 203 in the previous quarter, driven by tariff hikes, postpaid user additions, and a pickup in 2G to 4G/5G conversions.
In the just-ended quarter, Airtel lost 2.87 million users, ending with 351.64 million subscribers. Monthly churn rose to 3.2%, up from 2.8% in the preceding quarter, amid costlier mobile services across its 22 circles following the hike in base prepaid rates.
Post Q2 results, global brokerage firm UBS retained a neutral rating on Bharti Airtel with a target price of Rs 1,595.
“Q2FY25 saw a solid ARPU growth with a manageable churn. Home broadband, Africa, and Enterprise were slightly ahead of the estimates, while Digital TV came in slightly below,” said UBS in its note.
Despite the overall churn in subscriptions, Airtel added 4.2 million 4G subscribers, implying that the disconnections were mostly among low-ARPU subscribers, UBS believes.
Shares of Bharti Airtel have gained 77.2% in the last year and nearly 60% year-to-date. However, the shares experienced a decline of 6.6% last month.
