The financial results for March 2022 quarter are out for all the private telecom operators now. Amongst all the telcos, Airtel’s performance was way better than its competitors, including Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi). When it came to revenue growth, Airtel reported an increase of 9.5% QoQ, while Jio and Vi’s revenues were only 7.4% and 5.4% up QoQ in Q4 FY22. The data was shared by BofA Securities and was verified by ET. In the subscribers’ department, Airtel again outperformed Jio and Vodafone Idea by adding 3.1 million net users, while Jio and Vi lost 10.8 million and 3.4 million users, respectively. If seen in a black and white manner, Jio was certainly behind Airtel in adding net subscribers during the quarter. But Jio’s goal was to improve VLR or active subscriber percentage by removing inactive subscribers from the total user pool. It is worth noting that Jio was adding new active subscribers regardless.
Kotak Says Airtel’s Business Ahead of Jio in Q4 FY22
Brokerage Kotak said that Airtel’s overall India business was ahead of its arch-rival Reliance Jio in Q4 FY22. On Tuesday, Airtel came out with its quarterly results. The telco’s net income went up to Rs 2,008 crore during the quarter, which was also aided by a one-time gain of Rs 984.7 crore on the sale of telecommunication tower assets. Further, Airtel’s average revenue per user (ARPU) figure rose to Rs 178, which is not very far from its short-term goal of Rs 200. The company saw growth in the business of its subsidiaries, including Airtel Payments Bank, Airtel Business, and more. The company has been generating free cash flows and is raising fresh capital with way more ease than the struggling Vodafone Idea (Vi). It will be worth looking at the business performance of the telcos in Q1 FY23 because Jio is done with the SIM consolidation process, and Airtel isn’t going to get one-time gains every quarter.
