Airtel Africa plotted its way back to profitability as it turned $328 million in net profit for the last financial year, not so much by expanding revenue as by cutting down the weighty fx losses that dogged performance in the preceding year.
Its unaudited earnings report out on Thursday revealed turnover retreated by 0.5 per cent to $4.96 billion after income from both voice and data services dropped.
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That factor, alongside an increase in operational expenditure, led to an 11.1 per cent slide in operating profit to $1.5 billion.
Airtel Africa’s share price was flat in Lagos as of 12:48 WAT, following the news, staying unchanged at N2,156.9 per unit as it has been since 6 November.
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In London, where the stock is dual-listed, the shares had fallen by 6.9 per cent at about the same time as investors digested the mixed performance.
Even so, management’s reduction of derivative and exchange losses to $87 million, an 89.3 per cent decline compared to the preceding year, came in handy as a redeeming feature that also helped ease cost pressures on pre-tax profit.
It achieved that by partly offsetting the derivative and exchange losses recorded in H1’25 with the Nigerian naira and Tanzanian shilling gains reported in Q3’25.
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“An improving operating environment and focused execution contributed to strong momentum in our financial results with constant currency revenue growth peaking at 23.2% in Q4’25,” said CEO Sunil Tadar, who took the reins from Segun Ogunsanya last July.
“Part of this acceleration in the last quarter has also been driven by the Nigerian tariff adjustments,” he added, alluding to a 50 per cent telecom rates hike approved by the Nigerian telecoms regulator this year to enable telcos weather the devaluation storm.
A two-time devaluation of the naira, the currency of its biggest market Nigeria, in the previous financial year forced the telecom operator to incur derivative and foreign exchange losses of $544 million
That set Airtel Africa, which operates in fourteen countries on the continent, up for a net loss of $89 million for the year to March 2024.
Profit before tax for the period under review came to $661 million against a $63 million loss reported a year ago. Profit after tax, at $328 million, improved by 468.2 per cent, compared to a loss of $89 million in the previous year.
The wireless operator began the second and final phase of its share buyback scheme last December, through which it plans to return up to $100 million to shareholders. The first strand returned $45 million in all to equity investors.
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