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(Alliance News) - Airtel Africa PLC on Wednesday reported a higher annual profit as revenue climbed following an especially strong fourth quarter.
The telecommunications and mobile money services firm reported a USD598 million pretax profit for its financial year ended March 31, up 72% from the previous year's USD348 million profit.
This resulted from an 11% increase in revenue to USD3.42 billion from USD3.08 billion with fourth-quarter revenue in particular up 15% at USD899 million.
For the year as whole, revenue from all divisions was higher, including a 5.9% rise in voice revenue to USD1.97 billion, 36% more data revenue to USD930 million, and a 37% increase in mobile money revenue to USD311 million.
Airtel Africa has recommended a final dividend of 3 US cents per share, taking the annual total to 6 cents per share.
Chief Executive Raghunath Mandava said: "The markets where we operate have begun to be impacted by the Covid-19 and the related actions that governments have implemented to reduce the risk of contagion. Our priority has been to keep our colleagues, suppliers and customers safe whilst supporting the communities in which we operate. Telecoms businesses provide strategically essential services to ensure the functioning of economies and communities and are, therefore, more resilient compared to some other sectors. In Africa, the spread of the Covid-19 has lagged the rest of the world and, therefore, it is difficult to precisely forecast what the impact of this will be on customers and business. However, our performance during the month of April has been resilient as the business continued to deliver constant currency revenue growth, although at a lower rate.
"We enter this period of increased volatility in a strong financial position and our view on the medium-term opportunities across our footprint has not changed, as these markets will continue to benefit from strong population growth and the need for increased connectivity and financial inclusion."
Airtel Africa was the largest company to newly list on the London Main Market last year, with a GBP595 million offering in June 2019 that gave the company a market capitalisation of GBP3.1 billion at the time.
The stock has halved since mid-February, and its current market cap is just GBP1.5 billion.
The stock was down 1.6% at 39.36 pence early Wednesday.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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