Airtel Africa Share Discussion Threads

[la forge] 15/5/2022 14:09

MIDAS SHARE TIPS UPDATE: Phone tip's hotline to growth as Airtel's share price shoots up

By Joanne Hart, Financial Mail on Sunday

Published: 21:53 BST, 14 May 2022 | Updated: 09:55 BST, 15 May 2022



It is hard to believe that smartphones were invented less than 20 years ago. Back then, mobile phones were a luxury, even an oddity. Today, few people in this country can imagine life without one. In Africa, however, the situation is very different.

Little more than half the continent's 1.4billion population have a mobile phone. Most of those – some 500million people – have rudimentary models that can just about make and receive calls or send text messages.

For Airtel Africa, this is a huge opportunity. The company operates in 14 countries across Africa, from Nigeria to Madagascar. The second largest telecoms business in Africa, it is also the leading provider of mobile money services, which allow customers to use their phone like a mini bank.


Networking: Airtel operates in 14 countries across Africa, from Nigeria to Madagascar



But the group still has fewer than 130million customers so the opportunity for growth is clear. And Airtel is better positioned than most to add new customers to its roster and help existing ones to move to smartphones.

The group has been investing heavily so it can offer the 4G connectivity which allows smartphones to access the internet swiftly and easily. Airtel also has thousands of tiny kiosks in rural areas, so that people can buy phones and related services without having to travel for miles.

Results for the year to March 31, released last week, showed that turnover rose 21 per cent to $4.7billion (£3.8billion), while profits rose 37 per cent to $1.5billion and the dividend climbed 25 per cent to 5 cents a share (equivalent to just over 4p for UK shareholders). Further strong growth is expected.



Africa has been hit hard, as the cost of food and fuel has soared. Against that, many people are now back at work following the pandemic so they are earning more than they have done in recent years.

Africa also has the youngest population in the world, most of whom are desperate to have a device which allows them to listen to music, watch TikTok and use SnapChat, just like children do here.

More importantly, phones offer African consumers a route to greater prosperity and better education, even if they live in remote villages or have never been able to obtain a bank account.

Midas verdict: Midas recommended Airtel in August 2020, when the shares were 57p. Today they are £1.38 and brokers believe they should rise to at least £1.60.

Any company operating in Africa carries an element of risk so cautious shareholders should take profits now. The more adventurous should hang on to their stock. Airtel is ambitious, growing fast and it is empowering millions of Africans along the way.

Traded on: Main market Ticker: AAF Contact: airtel.africa or 020 7493 9315

[robsy2] 11/5/2022 14:34

It might be on the website now.

[paulo435] 11/5/2022 14:17

oh the irony, telecommunications lol

[bosbus] 11/5/2022 13:58

Where do I find the audio please?

[robsy2] 11/5/2022 13:27

Can't really understand the audio presentation.poor really- the system went down , it started late and was inaudible.

[qs99] 11/5/2022 13:09

Think the outlook was too cautious, hence the fall DYOR

[roguetraderuk] 11/5/2022 13:04

you can point to some issues such as slight miss on some headline numbers or the headwind of a higher usd but as i mentioned before i think they held up remarkably well during the last few months. dont think its anything more than that.

[farrugia] 11/5/2022 12:58

i've bought... as for putting you off shares for life nemesis I think a lot of traders will be put off investing/trading stocks for many years before this global crisis ends.

[rogash] 11/5/2022 12:50

Perhaps Singapore Telecom still having to sell.

[saltaire111] 11/5/2022 12:25

Bizarre market reaction. What does the market know that we don’t?

Salty

[bosbus] 11/5/2022 12:00

Me neither. Just look at the recent stream of rns's followed by today's results.

[robsy2] 11/5/2022 11:55

Nor me. Amazing really. I’m off to the presentation. I’ll post up anything of interest.

[nemesis6] 11/5/2022 11:54

Incredible....puts me off shares for life. cant see ONE reason for this drop

[mattd1] 11/5/2022 11:20

:) Foot in mouth disease for me. Anyone got treatment for that?

Will I never learn?!

[nemesis6] 11/5/2022 11:10

oh yeah brilliant....timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[mattd1] 11/5/2022 09:07

Looks very promising indeed.
I'm in the unfortunate position of probably needing to sell these soon and some other investments (deposit for house) ... Will try to hold these if I can - probably my best performing holding.

[roguetraderuk] 11/5/2022 08:22

Turning to the outlook, long-term opportunities for us remain attractive. While mindful of currency devaluation and repatriation risks, we continue to work actively to mitigate all our material risks and to deliver value for all our stakeholders. There are increasing challenges from global inflationary pressures, but we continue to target revenue growth ahead of the market and moderate margin expansion."

thats the important paragraph. sums up the ops and the risks.
they dont give you many chances but its one to pick up on dips if you have an eye on the longer term.

[robsy2] 11/5/2022 07:44

Wow! Looks good. I wonder what the market will make of it? Per x 13 gives us 180p. 4p divi gives us a growing divi yield of 2% +.

[myoung1982] 11/5/2022 07:37

Increased dividend should help aswell.

[saltaire111] 11/5/2022 07:37

Cracking results, and no placing!

Results for the year ended 31 March 2022

11 May 2022

Full-year highlights

-- Reported revenue grew by 20.6% for the year, to $4,714m, and 17.8% for Q4. Constant currency underlying revenue grew 23.3% for the year and 19.1% in Q4.

-- Constant currency underlying revenue growth was strong in all regions: Nigeria up 27.7%, East Africa up 22.7% and Francophone Africa up 17.2%; and across all key services, with revenue in Voice up 15.4%, Data up 34.6% and Mobile Money up 34.9%.


-- Underlying EBITDA of $2,311m, grew by 29.0% in reported currency.
-- Underlying EBITDA margin of 49.0%, increased by 294 basis points.
-- Operating profit grew by 37.2% to $1,535m in reported currency.
-- Profit after tax grew by 82.0% to $755m.
-- Basic EPS of 16.8 cents, an increase of 86.5%. EPS before exceptional items of 16.0 cents (FY'21: 8.2 cents).

-- Operating free cash flow of $1,655m, up 40.5%, with net cash generated from operating activities up 20.7% to $2,011m. Over the last twelve months the business has repaid nearly $1.4bn of debt at HoldCo as a result of strong cash upstreaming across its OpCos and proceeds from minority investments in mobile money and tower sales.

-- Leverage ratio improved to 1.3x from 2.0x in the prior year, with $1bn of debt now held at HoldCo (FY'21: $2.4bn).

-- Customer base of 128.4 million, up 8.7%, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 15.2%) and mobile money services (customer base up 20.7%). NIN/SIM regulations in Nigeria impacted customer growth in H1, but then returned to strong growth, adding 4 million customers in Nigeria during H2'22.

-- Board recommends a final dividend of 3 cents per share, making total FY'22 dividends 5 cents per share (FY'21: 4 cents).

[johnrxx99] 11/5/2022 07:31

Slightly ahead of forecast, well done. I hope the market agrees.

[myoung1982] 11/5/2022 07:16

Agree! Solid set of results there.

[catsick] 11/5/2022 07:11

Those look like excellent results

[saltaire111] 10/5/2022 10:49

I hope there’s not going to be yet another placing announced.