Airtel Africa has announced 11.2 percent revenue growth for the financial year ended March 2020, which stood at $3,422 million as compared to $3,077 million recorded in the year ended March 2019.
The company recorded a $408 million profit after tax, a 4.4 percent drop from $426 million recorded the previous year attributed to increased tax charges from $78 million the previous year to $190 million, and also cash devaluation.
The company also attributed the drop to a one-off deferred tax recognition in Nigeria in the year ended 30 March 2019 and a lower exceptional item gain in the current period. Post one-off tax benefit, profit after tax for the year increased by $43 million or 17 percent.
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Profit before tax stood at $598 million as compared to $348 million the previous year.
The effective tax rate was 48.6 percent compared to 41.9 percent in the previous year largely as a result of the profit mix between countries and higher withholding tax on dividend declared.
Revenue in constant currency grew by 13.8 percent in the full year with growth recorded across all business segments, with voice revenue up by 5.2 percent, data by 39 percent and mobile money by 37.2 percent.
Operating profit grew by 22.8 percent to $901 million and increased by 25.4 percent in constant currency. Free cash flow was $453 million, more than double compared to the same period last year.
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Earnings per share (EPS) before exceptional items was $7.3 cents and basic EPS was $10.3 cents, a decrease of $9.2 cents.
Net debt to underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was 2.1 times, compared to 3.0 times in March 2019.
Customer base up by 11.9 percent to 110.6 million.
In East Africa, the company recorded a revenue increase by 13.6 percent to $1,201 million driven by growth across all products.
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Data revenue in East Africa grew by 20.3 percent due to 4G rollout, increase in smartphone penetration, and popular offerings.
Mobile Money revenue in the region was up 43.7 percent in constant currency due to increase in customer base and transaction value per customer.
In Nigeria, revenues grew by 24.4 percent to $1,373 million while in Francophone Africa the revenues grew by 0.5 percent to $859 million.
The Board recommended a final dividend of $3 cents per share, to a total dividend of $6 cents per share.
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