Airtel Africa delivered robust financial results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2026, with profit after tax increasing 16% to $254 million on reported currency basis. According to reports from Rediff Moneynews and The Economic Times, this represents a significant improvement from the $219 million profit recorded in the same period last year. The company's revenue demonstrated strong momentum, increasing 25.7% to $1.97 billion compared to $1.567 million in the September 2025 quarter. On a constant currency basis, revenue growth was 20.6%, indicating the company's ability to maintain strong performance across different currency environments. The performance helped offset higher finance costs and inflationary pressure from rising fuel prices.
The company achieved remarkable operational improvements with operating profit surging 28.5% to $659 million and underlying EBITDA rising 29.4% to $993 million. As reported by The Economic Times, the underlying EBITDA margin expanded 144 basis points year-on-year to 50.4%, marking the company's highest level. CEO Sunil Taldar attributed this achievement to "a combination of operational discipline, ongoing cost efficiency programmes and continued scale benefits." The margin expansion demonstrates effective cost management and operational leverage despite inflationary pressures from rising fuel costs.
The company's customer acquisition strategy showed positive results with total customer base increasing 11.6% to 193.9 million during the quarter. As reported by Rediff Moneynews and The Economic Times, data customers grew 15% to 89.9 million, while mobile money customers increased 22.4% to 60.9 million. This diversified growth across multiple service segments demonstrates Airtel Africa's ability to expand its customer base and revenue streams beyond traditional telecommunications services.
The company's focus on data services showed strong results, with smartphone penetration reaching 51.6% and driving increased data consumption. According to Rediff Moneynews and The Economic Times, smartphone data usage per customer increased to 13.3 GB from 10.1 GB in the prior period, reflecting growing demand for data services. Airtel Africa reported data revenue growing 34.2% in reported currency to $821 million with constant currency growth of 28.7%. The company achieved constant currency data ARPU growth of 10.7%, demonstrating effective monetization of growing data demand and the company's ability to improve customer experience while increasing revenue per user.
The strong quarterly performance positions Airtel Africa well in the competitive African telecommunications market. As reported by Rediff Moneynews and The Economic Times, the company's ability to maintain 20.6% revenue growth on constant currency basis while expanding its customer base and improving data monetization demonstrates operational excellence. The 16% profit growth and 25.7% revenue increase reflect the company's successful execution of its growth strategy across multiple African markets, with the record underlying EBITDA margin of 50.4% showcasing exceptional operational efficiency. The 12.2% increase in average revenue per user to $3.4 in reported currency and continued expansion across data and mobile money services demonstrate the company's ability to capitalize on growing digital demand across African markets.
