(Alliance News) - Airtel Africa PLC on Friday said profit was higher in its third financial quarter, with especially strong growth from mobile money helping to boost revenue.
For the three months ended December 31, Airtel's third financial quarter, pretax profit rose 7.9% to USD200 million from USD186 million the year before.
This resulted from a 17% increase in underlying revenue to USD1.03 billion from USD883 million, including a 34% rise in mobile money revenue to USD110 million from USD82 million.
Underlying revenue excludes one-time exceptional revenue of USD20 million relating to a settlement in Niger during the quarter.
Underlying revenue also includes USD74.7 million of intra-segment eliminations for the nine months ended December 31 and USD65.7 million for the prior period, though Airtel did not disclose eliminations for the third financial quarters of either year alone.
For the nine months to December 31, pretax profit was 3.8% lower at USD482 million from USD501 million the year before. Underlying revenue was higher, up 13% at USD1.85 billion from USD2.54 billion, but expenses increased to USD1.56 billion from USD1.42 billion and net finance costs rose to USD318 million from USD225 million.
Chief Executive Raghunath Mandava said: "While the Covid-19 pandemic has had little impact on our most recent quarter, we remain vigilant about the recent news flow around new strains of the virus and further actions by governments to minimise contagion in our countries of operation. The opportunities for sustainable profitable growth from our underpenetrated markets for both mobile and mobile money services remain hugely attractive, and we are confident of continuing to deliver on our growth strategy."
Shares in Airtel were down 3.4% at 76.90 pence in London on Friday morning.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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Airtel Africa (AAF)