Bharti Airtel Q2 preview: ARPU, subscriber growth a booster, view on tariffs key

Like peer Jio Infocomm, is also set to report encouraging results for the quarter ended September on Monday.

India’s second largest telecom operator is likely to report a 4% sequential growth in consolidated revenue to Rs 34,130 crore, according to an ET Now poll.

Higher number of days in the last quarter, lower spectrum usage charges, tariff hikes, and lower fuel costs are seen lifting the earnings of Bharti Airtel.

“We believe

is well-positioned to report strong revenue growth and improvement in profitability, led by higher tariffs and market share gains,” said in its report.

Additional days in the quarter and improved mix of subscribers are seen driving a

sequential growth in the average revenue per user (ARPU) for Airtel.

Analysts expect a 1-3% sequential growth in the ARPU from 183 rupees. This would be higher than the number reported by RJio. RJio’s ARPU for the quarter rose 0.8% sequentially to Rs 177.2.

While the growth in ARPU for Airtel is expected to be superior to RJio, subscriber additions will still be lesser than the latter.

Brokerages Emkay Global Financial Services and ICICIdirect estimate net additions of 2 million subscribers for Airtel, while BNP Paribas has pencilled in an optimistic figure of 6 million.

Rival RJio had net added 7.7 million subscribers in the last quarter.

Among business segments, non-mobility homes and enterprise vertical is seen reporting 5% and 3% sequential growth, respectively, while direct-to-home (DTH) is likely to see a 0.4% drop in revenue, Emkay Global said.

In the week gone by, subsidiary Airtel Africa released its quarterly numbers, with revenue and operating profit rising 4% each quarter-on-quarter. However, the profit fell sharply by 18% mainly due to a rise in finance costs.

Bharti Airtel’s operating profit is seen rising 5% on the back of better mix, lower spectrum usage charges and other operational costs.

A broad-based growth across segments, strong India performance, and lower costs are likely to drive a 45% QoQ growth in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,327 crore, ET Now poll showed.

Besides Q2 performance, the major monitorables for the investors would be an outlook on tariff hikes, margin trajectory, and 5G services launch plans.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)



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