Airtel Africa on Friday said its net profit for the three months ended June 30, 2020, declined nearly 57% to $57 million due to one-off gain in the comparable period last year and increased finance costs and taxes. The outlook remained uncertain amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said.
Airtel Africa had posted a net profit of $132 million in the April-June 2019 quarter. Revenues for the quarter under review, however, increased by 6.9% to $851 million from $796 million in the year-earlier period.
The company added that profit after tax for the April-June 2020 quarter was lower due to benefits in the same period of the prior year of non-operating exceptional items of $63 million, a higher derivative and exchange loss of $19.4 million in other finance cost in the quarter ended June 2020 and higher tax in quarter ended June 2020.
CEO Raghunath Mandava said during the last quarter, business was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as restrictions on movements of people were introduced to contain the spread of infection. The company added its customer base grew by 11.8% to 111.5 million.
