Airtel Africa plc reported a $471 million foreign exchange loss in the fiscal quarter ended June 30. This is by the financial statement of the company submitted to the Nigerian exchange.
The loss was caused by the Central Bank’s unification of the currency rate, which increased it from N460/$ in June to N790/$.
From the $1.25 billion it reported during the same time in 2022, the company’s revenue climbed by 9% throughout the period to $1.37 billion.
It did, however, disclose that the company prepared its financial results using an exchange rate of N502/$. If the N752/$ closing rate were utilized to determine its financial results, revenues would have slumped to $1.20 billion representing a 4.4% decline.
In the time under review, Airtel Africa plc experienced a loss after taxes of $151 million. Comparing this to the profit after tax of $178 million earned during the same time in 2022, there has been a drop of 184.7%.
This was prompted by losses on foreign exchange and derivatives totaling $570 million. Additionally, it reported a $221 million deficit before taxes.
The period’s earnings per share decreased to a negative 4.5 cents. In comparison to the 4.4 cents reported in the same quarter of 2022, this is a 204% reduction.
Due to the devaluation of the naira, the company’s tax liability decreased from $119 million in the prior period to $84 million in the most recent financial statement.
Airtel Group saw its customer base rise by 8.8% to 143.1 million subscribers despite the challenging macroeconomic climate. The average revenue per user increased by 16% while the client base for its Nigerian subsidiary expanded by 4.8%.
Due to the depreciation of the Nigerian naira in June 2023, a foreign exchange loss of $471 million was recorded in finance cost before tax and $317 million after tax, which is what mostly caused the profit after tax to be negative ($151 million).
Basic earnings per share were negative (4.5 cents), down from 4.4 cents in the prior period, due to a $317 million net extraordinary loss from the devaluation of the naira in June 2023.
Airtel Africa is a telecoms and mobile money service company operating in 14 countries across West, South, Central, and East Africa.
