Airtel Africa shares were up 0.6% to 141.1p in early morning trading on Wednesday, after the company reported a 20.6% growth in revenue to $4.7 billion compared to $3.9 billion in its FY2022 results.
Airtel Africa saw a 15.4% uptick in voice revenue, alongside a 34.6% increase in data and 34.9% surge in mobile money.
The company noted positive growth in all regions, with a 27.7% increase in Nigeria, 22.7% rise in East Africa and 17.2% growth in Francophone Africa.
The company’s customer base saw an increase of 8.7% to 128.4 million, with notable growth of 15.2% across mobile data and 20.7% in mobile monetary services.
The telecommunications group confirmed an underlying EBITDA rise of 29% to $2.3 billion against $1.7 billion and an underlying EBITDA margin increase of 294 basis points to 49%.
Airtel Africa’s operating profit rose 37.2% to $1.5 billion compared to $1.1 billion in reported currency, with a post-tax profit surge of 82% to $755 million as a result of strong revenue growth across all categories.
The firm highlighted an EPS increase 0f 86.5% to 16.8c from 9c, due to higher operating profits, which served to sufficiently offset increased tax charged and higher non-controlling interests.
The firm noted an EPS before exceptional items of 16c against 8.2c in 2021.
Airtel Africa further reported an operating free cash flow increase of 40.5% to $1.6 billion from $1.1 billion, with net cash from operating activities up 20.7% to $2 billion compared to $1.6 billion.
The firm commented that it repaid almost $1.4 billion in debt at HoldCo due to strong cash upstreaming throughout its OpCos and income from minority investments in mobile cash and tower sales.
The group added that its leverage ratio improved to 1.3x from 2x in 2021, with $1 billion in debt at HoldCo compared to $2.4 billion the previous year.
The company said its outlook was positive for the next year, with target revenues ahead of the market, despite rising inflationary pressure.
Airtel Africa announced a final dividend of 3c per share, bringing the total dividend for 2022 to 5c per share from 4c in 2021.
“We have delivered strong double-digit growth in revenues across all our regions and all our key services, with improving margins driven by strong cost control, and expanding cash generation which is enabling us to continue to invest in our network and services and expand our distribution, as well as strengthening our balance sheet and increasing our returns to shareholders. We are connecting more customers in new and existing coverage areas and driving usage levels and ARPUs to new highs,” said Airtel Africa CEO Segun Ogunsanya.
“We have successfully executed on a number of strategic initiatives in the year, with tower sales completed in four countries, $550m of minority investments secured for our mobile money business and a successful buyout of minorities in our Nigerian operation. Our receipt last month of a full PSB licence in Nigeria will help us to accelerate financial inclusion in the territory and drive our mobile money business even faster.”
“While the fundamentals of our six-pillar growth strategy remain unchanged, we are looking to accelerate our performance through a greater focus on digitalisation and we have underpinned our strategic pillars with our sustainability ambition.”