The Airtel Africa Plc Board has recommended a final dividend of 3.27 cents per share, making the total dividend for FY'23 5.45 cents per share, an increase of 9% in line with their progressive dividend policy.
Other financial highlights include:
Revenue in constant currency grew by 17.6%, with revenues growing by 11.5% to $5,255m in reported currency.
While each segment's reported currency revenue growth was impacted by currency devaluation, they all delivered double-digit constant currency revenue growth. Across the Group mobile service revenue grew by 16.2% in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 11.8% and data revenue growth of 23.8%. Mobile money revenue grew by 29.6% in constant currency.
Underlying EBITDA increased by 17.3% in constant currency, and 11.4% in reported currency to $2,575m, with an underlying EBITDA margin of 49.0%, reflecting the resilience of operating model despite inflationary cost pressures.
Profit after tax was $750m, a decrease of only $5m, after including a higher foreign exchange and derivative losses of $245m.
Basic EPS at 17.7 cents was up by 5.2% due to higher operating profits and exceptional items gain on deferred tax credit recognition in Kenya, the DRC and Tanzania partially offset by higher foreign exchange and derivative losses. EPS before exceptional items was 13.6 cents, a reduction of 15.0%, largely due to higher foreign exchange and derivative losses of $245m. EPS before exceptional items and excluding foreign exchange and derivative losses was 20.6 cents, up by 13.4%.
