Airtel Africa revenue hits $4.714m in 2021

. As MTN Nigeria quotes ₦127bn CP on FMDQ Exchange

COMFORT EKELEME, BUSINESS EDITOR

Airtel Africa Plc said its revenue grew by 20.6per cent for the year, to $4,714 million, and 17.8per cent for the fourth quarter.

This is even as Airtel noted that constant currency underlying revenue grew 23.3per cent for the year and 19.1per cent in the fourth quarter.

The board of the company has recommended a final dividend of 3 cents per share, making total Full Year dividends 5 cents per share.

Also, its constant currency underlying revenue growth was strong in all regions: Nigeria up 27.7per cent, East Africa up 22.7per cent, and Francophone Africa up 17.2per cent; and across all key services, with revenue in Voice up 15.4per cent, Data up 34.6per cent and Mobile Money up 34.9per cent.

The company’s underlying EBITDA at $2,311million grew by 29.0per cent in reported currency, Underlying EBITDA margin of 49.0per cent, increased by 294 basis points.

Operating profit grew by 37.2per cent to $1,535million in reported currency, and Profit after tax grew by 82.0per cent to $755million.

Airtel also recorded a Basic EPS of 16.8 cents, an increase of 86.5per cent. EPS before exceptional items of 16.0 cents (Full Year 21: 8.2 cents).

Operating free cash flow of $1,655million, up 40.5per cent, with net cash generated from operating activities up 20.7per cent to $2,011million.

Over the last twelve months, the business has repaid nearly $1.4billion of debt at HoldCo as a result of strong cash upstreaming across its OpCos and proceeds from minority investments in mobile money and tower sales.

The leverage ratio improved to 1.3 xs from 2.0 xs in the prior year, with $1bn of debt now held at HoldCo (Full Year 21: $2.4billion).

The customer base of 128.4 million was up by 8.7per cent, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 15.2per cent) and mobile money services (customer base up 20.7per cent). NIN/SIM regulations in Nigeria impacted customer growth in H1, but then returned to strong growth, adding 4 million customers in Nigeria during H2’22.

Chief Executive Officer of Airtel,  Segun Ogunsanya said “This is another strong set of results for Airtel Africa, demonstrating our solid execution as we continue to enrich the lives of a growing number of people through leveraging the sizeable opportunity to promote digital and financial inclusion across our markets.

“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.

“We have successfully executed a number of strategic initiatives in the year, with tower sales completed in four countries, $550 million 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 license 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,” he said.

Speaking further, he said, “I am particularly proud of the progress we have made in articulating our sustainability strategy this year as well as the partnership we announced with UNICEF to help drive and support educational programmes in our territories. I very much look forward to us publishing both our pathway to net-zero and our first full sustainability report later in the year.

Turning to the outlook, he said,  long-term opportunities for us remain attractive. While mindful of currency devaluation and repatriation risks, we continue to work actively to mitigate all our material risks and to deliver value for all our stakeholders.

“There are increasing challenges from global inflationary pressures, but we continue to target revenue growth ahead of the market and moderate margin expansion,”  he said.

Also, FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited has approved MTN Nigeria Communications Plc ₦150.00 billion Commercial Paper (CP) Programme and the ₦51.38 billion Series 1 and ₦75.62 billion Series 2 CPs under its ₦150.00 billion CP Issuance Programme on its platform.

The quotation lays credence to the innovation, efficiency, and operational excellence for which the Exchange is reputed as endorsed by issuers, investors, and other market stakeholders.

MTN Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest providers of communications services and Nigeria’s premier provider of connectivity, communication and collaboration solutions.

MTN Nigeria is a member of MTN Group – a multinational telecommunications group, which operates in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

The Company serves over seventy-seven million subscribers with national coverage and a fibre network that reaches every state in the nation.

The proceeds from these issuances, which are co-sponsored by Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited – Lead Sponsor; Chapel Hill Denham Advisory Limited, Coronation Merchant Bank Limited, FBNQuest Merchant Bank Limited, FSDH Capital Limited, Standard Chartered Capital & Advisory Nigeria Limited and UCML Capital Limited (Co-Sponsors) – all Registration Member (Quotations) of the Exchange, will be utilised by MTN Nigeria to support its short-term working capital and funding requirements.