Key highlights from Bharti Airtel Ltd (BHARTIARTL) Q1 FY23 Earnings Concall
Management Update:
- BHARTIARTL said that its post-paid segment is now about 45% larger than its nearest competitor. However, the company added that its DTH business saw a decline of 0.9% but consistently grew market share over last few quarters.
- In 5G, the company acquired 100 Mhz of 3.5 gigahertz across every circle in the country. Also, the company acquired 800 Mhz of 26 Ghz spectrum across every circle in the country.
- The company intends to roll out 5G immediately and by March 2024, expects to cover every single town and key rural areas also with 5G.
Q&A Highlights:
- Sanjesh Jain of ICICI Securities asked about 5G capex and returns. Gopal Vittal CEO replied that the pricing between 5G and 4G is not yet decided by the company. However it added that, globally 5G by itself is not yet giving incremental ARPU to any operator. In India tariffs are low, and with every increase in tariffs, the ROC will get much better.
- Sanjesh Jain of ICICI Securities enquired about Airtel’s customer advisory board for the enterprise business and their opinion about 5G adoption in India for the company. Gopal Vittal CEO answered that the board has given lot of ideas on new services to be launched.
- Sanjesh Jain of ICICI Securities also asked if the company is seeing in FY24 some contribution in enterprise coming from 5G. Gopal Vittal CEO replied that the enterprise business has performed well over the last decade. There is no reason to say why the enterprise business will not sustain its growth.
- Pranav Kshatriya from Edelweiss asked if it can be expected that the company’s strong acceleration in number of cities it is present for FTH broadband will drive growth in coming quarters. Gopal Vittal CEO replied that it is seeing sharp growth, adding 310,000 users in 1Q23 and expects this growth to sustain.
- Pranav Kshatriya from Edelweiss asked about the depreciation pertaining to the lease liabilities. Soumen Ray CFO answered that depreciation has gone up by about couple of percentage point due to a day extra in 1Q23, plus the number of towers is increasing, and some renewals happening. The company added that there is nothing out of the ordinary.
- Kunal Vora of BNP Paribas asked about the fixed wireless broadband opportunity in India and the potential size of the overall home broadband market. Gopal Vittal CEO said that the company has been adding about 300,000 plus customers every quarter and is sustaining that trajectory. Fixed wires is an interesting opportunity and is better than wireless.
- Kunal Vora of BNP Paribas enquired about the increase in SG&A cost, and the competitive intensity. Soumen Ray CFO clarified that the increase is in line with growth in business and the competitive activity. There is also a deferment impact, but looking at purely sales and marketing expense, it has remained flat.
- Vivekanand S with Ambit asked that in spectrum where the company has admin spectrum coming up for renewal in 2024, if the company is foreseeing spending more. Gopal Vittal CEO replied that there is very little amount of spectrum spend that will happen in the next few years.