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(Alliance News) - Airtel Africa PLC on Tuesday said profit rose sharply in its third quarter, due to higher revenue from more customers and a substantial loss from associates the year before that did not repeat.
Shares in the FTSE 250 company were up 2.5% at 72.80 pence in London in morning trading.
The mobile operator reported a pretax profit of USD186 million for its third quarter ended December 31, 77% higher than the previous year's figure of USD105 million.
Revenue rose 13% to USD883 million from USD783 million as its "strong performance in Nigeria and East Africa", combined with an improved performance from the company's Rest of Africa region. Customer numbers increased 9.4% to USD107.1 million from USD97.9 million.
The 2019 third quarter also included a swing to an USD18 million gain on operating exceptional items. Meanwhile, in 2018, Airtel Africa incurred a USD25 million loss on organising exceptional items.
For the nine months to December 31, Airtel Africa reported a pretax profit of USD501 million on revenue of USD2.52 billion. This compares to the previous year's nine-month profit of USD227 million on revenue of USD2.30 billion.
Chief Executive Raghunath Mandava said: "On a market specific basis, Nigeria has been leading our growth with double digit voice revenue growth and over 70% data growth as a result of our lead in 4G rollouts and the huge data capacities we are creating.
"We operate in dynamic underpenetrated markets, with good opportunities for continued growth. These results give me confidence that we have the right strategy to continue to deliver against these opportunities."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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