BHARTIARTL
Large CapBharti Airtel Limited
Telecom
Bharti Airtel is a diversified telecom operator in India and Africa, offering mobile, home broadband, digital TV, and B2B services. The company is strategically investing in new growth areas like data centers, financial services, and cloud to future-proof its business and diversify revenue streams.
One read, four checks
75+ is strong, 60-74 is usable, 45-59 is mixed, and below 45 needs caution. These are research lenses, not buy/sell instructions.
Investable fundamentals, management trust is supportive, price trend is neutral, and recent execution is weak.
Fundamental lens: valuation, quality, growth, balance sheet, and cash flow.
low confidence · 0/0 claims checked
Timing lens: price trend and sector relative strength.
Rolling lens: recent quarterly delivery, not the latest single-result score.
Quarter ended 31 Mar 2026
Bad · 15/100PAT -26% YoY · Rev +16% YoY · margin expansion
| Metric | This quarter | YoY | QoQ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ₹55,383 Cr | +15.7% | +2.6% |
| EBITDA | ₹31,492 Cr | +16.6% | +2.3% |
| Operating margin | 57.0% | +100 bps | +0 bps |
| PAT | ₹9,247 Cr | -25.9% | +8.8% |
| PAT margin | 16.7% | -936 bps | +95 bps |
NDF means not disclosed in the current structured filing feed. It is intentionally not treated as zero.
Where growth can come from, and what can break the case
Bharti Airtel delivered a strong FY26 with record consolidated revenue of Rs.2,11,000 Cr and EBITDAaL of Rs.1,08,000 Cr (51.2% margin). Q4 FY26 consolidated revenue grew 2.6% QoQ to Rs.55,400 Cr, with India EBITDAaL margin improving 20bps to 52%. Board recommended a 50% higher dividend of Rs.24/share.
Bharti Airtel demonstrated robust financial performance in FY26, driven by strong growth in both India and Africa. Strategic investments in adjacencies like data centers and financial services are progressing, with management focused on disciplined capital allocation and ARPU acceleration. However, ARPU growth remains a key challenge, and geopolitical headwinds pose risks to operations and costs.
Revenue by Segment
Latest issuer-disclosed distribution across 4 reported categories.
Mobile Portfolio Premiumization & Postpaid Growth
Management is determined to accelerate ARPU growth by driving differentiation in postpaid and upgrading customers to best fit plans.
Rapid Expansion of Homes Business
Company sees a large opportunity with market potential of nearly 100 million connected homes; deepening FTTH footprint with accelerated home pass expansion.
B2B Digital Businesses
Majority of incremental growth for B2B is coming from adjacencies including cloud, security, IoT, CPaaS, data centers. Digital businesses grew 27% in FY26.
New Growth Bets (Data Centers, Financial Services, Cloud)
Identified data centers, financial services, and Airtel Cloud as sharpened focus areas, showing encouraging traction and progress.
Data Center Capacity Ambition
Continue to make steady progress against ambition of building 1 gigawatt capacity over the next few years. Nxtra announced a $1 billion fund raise.
Network Sites & Fiber Rollout
Deployed nearly 7800 more network sites and rolled out nearly 43,000 km of fiber in FY26. Total 1,43,000 km of fiber deployed over last three years.
Home Pass Expansion
Rolled out upwards of 8 million home passes in FY26 to cross 45 million total home passes.
Edge Data Centers
Focused on building 56 world-class edge data centers in the next 18 to 24 months for computation at the edge.
Africa Growth Opportunity
Long-term growth opportunity in Africa led by low tele-density (45% unique SIMs), smartphone penetration (52%), low data consumption, and young demographic profile.
Homes Market Potential
Large opportunity with market potential of nearly 100 million connected homes over the medium-term in India, driven by smart TV penetration and connectivity needs.
Digital Acceleration & AI Integration
AI is central to the digital agenda, progressively embedded across platform architecture, contributing to nearly 30% of all code written at Airtel.
Geopolitical Crisis Impact
Operations seeing impact on international roaming, capex due to INR depreciation, gas supply restrictions affecting tower build-outs, and energy price increases.
ARPU Growth Challenges
Management is 'not happy' with Rs.3 ARPU increase, stating the price architecture in India is 'broken' due to unlimited data plans.
Smartphone Shipment & Price Softening
Seen some softening of handset shipments and sharp price increases in the last few weeks, which could impact organic ARPU expansion.
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Cost Increase
Rising prices of chipsets and memory have made fixed wireless access 'very much more expensive' than fiber in the last 3-4 months.
Sustained Low ARPU Growth
The 'broken' pricing architecture with unlimited data plans and competitive intensity could limit meaningful ARPU acceleration without tariff hikes.
Geopolitical & Macroeconomic Volatility
Ongoing geopolitical crisis impacts international roaming, capex costs (INR depreciation), and energy prices, potentially affecting profitability.
Handset Affordability & Upgrades
Rising smartphone prices and softening shipments could slow feature phone to smartphone upgrades, impacting data consumption and ARPU growth.
What management said, and what results must prove
Issuer guidance and extracted claims are tracked against later reported outcomes. Treat these as management statements, not IndiaPulse forecasts.
FY2026 results provide a comprehensive annual performance view (YoY), while Q4 results highlight sequential momentum and operational improvements. Payments Bank growth is explicitly stated YoY, making both comparisons relevant.
Consolidated Revenue FY26
Consolidated revenue crossed a lifetime high of about Rs.2,11,000 Crores.
Consolidated EBITDAaL FY26
EBITDAaL came in at about Rs.1,08,000 Crores with a margin of 51.2%.
Q4 Consolidated Revenue Growth
Consolidated revenues came in at about Rs.55,400 Crores, a growth of 2.6% sequentially.
Q4 India Mobile Customer Additions
Mobile business added 4.7 million customers in Q4, with 5.8 million being smartphone customers.
Progressive Dividend Policy
The Board recommended a dividend of Rs.24 per share, a significant increase over last year, in line with the stated philosophy of progressive increase in payouts.
Disciplined Capital Allocation
Primary focus is investing in core business (India & Africa), followed by deleveraging, and then investing in adjacencies (data centers, financial services, cloud).
ARPU Acceleration Focus
Management is determined to 'double down on all our levers on ARPU and growing and accelerating the space', focusing on postpaid and consumption-driven upgrades.
Fiber-First Strategy for Homes
Company has 'pivoted the whole company back to a dramatic obsession on fiber' for home broadband due to rising costs of fixed wireless access.
Numbers and claims to verify in the next filings
| Checkpoint | Current evidence | What to verify next |
|---|---|---|
| ARPU Growth | Rs.257 (Q4 FY26, +Rs.3 QoQ) | Acceleration from postpaid penetration, consumption-driven upgrades, and any changes in pricing architecture. |
| Fiber Home Pass Expansion | 45 million home passes (FY26) | Continued rapid expansion and customer additions, especially given the renewed 'fiber-first' strategy. |
| New Growth Bets Scaling | Data centers (1 GW ambition), Financial Services (NBFC launch, >Rs.550 Cr monthly loan disbursement), Airtel Cloud (24 deals in FY26). | Progress towards capacity targets, commercial launch and scale of financial services, and increasing deal wins/revenue in cloud. |
| Net Debt to EBITDAaL | 1.1 | Continued disciplined capital spending and deleveraging efforts to maintain or improve balance sheet strength. |
Verification checkpoints are IndiaPulse research interpretation, not investment advice.
Trend score and candlestick chart
45NeutralSMA20 -6.9% / mo · near 52W low
Technical chart
BHARTIARTLweekly · 5Y+14.6%Technical trend read
NeutralTrend is undirectional — long-term trend unclear. RSI 40.
- SMA20 falling (~7.5% over last month) — short-term momentum negative.
- RSI(14) at 40 — sideways, no extreme reading.
- MACD below signal but histogram contracting — bearish momentum easing.
- Within 5% of 52-week low — testing support.
Mechanical read from the price + indicator series above. Not a recommendation — technical setups can reverse without warning, especially around earnings and macro events.
Valuation, score drivers, trust methodology, financials, and peers
Use these sections after reviewing the decision summary, latest result, thesis, management accountability, and technical timing above.
Fundamental score breakdown
UNDERVALUEDWhy this score?
Top U-Score contributors and drags from the latest stored fundamentals.
Positive drivers
- FCF yield is supportive at 5.8%.
- Piotroski is strong at 7/9.
- Fair-value margin of safety is positive at 31.6%.
Main drags
- Valuation is weaker at 9/30; verify the latest quarterly trend.
- Balance sheet is weaker at 6/15; verify the latest quarterly trend.
- Growth is weaker at 19/25; verify the latest quarterly trend.
Telecom valuation: EV/EBITDA against ARPU, debt, and capex
Telecom needs enterprise-value and cash-flow framing because leverage is structurally important.
Stored run vs live recompute
This shows the stored score trend when snapshots exist, and also compares the latest stored nightly score with a live recompute from current fundamentals and price.
Score history
12 stored score snapshots. Latest stored move: +0 points.
Factor attribution
Trust asks: does management behaviour match later outcomes? Higher is better, but confidence and evidence depth matter as much as the number.
Healthy Trust: Claim history is still being built. It ranks around the 79th percentile of the scored universe and 86th percentile within Telecom. Main check: results consistency is weak at 53/100.
High Trust Lite: Promoter pledge is zero. Key concern: 2 latest quarters had PAT decline worse than 25% YoY.
Generally investable credibility. Look for weak sub-scores before increasing position size.
overall median 67 · Telecom: 86th pctile, median 67 · Large: 58th pctile, median 74
90 documents indexed, but claim history is not strong enough yet.
0 claims extracted · No contradicted claim yet
How to read this Trust Score
Healthy Trust · low confidenceRead Trust alongside U-Score, result consistency, and technical trend. A cheap stock with weak Trust needs a larger margin of safety; a high Trust score does not make an expensive stock attractive by itself.
Forensic breakdown
Read low sub-scores as due-diligence warnings, not automatic sell signals.
Trust positives
- ▸Promoter pledge is zero.
- ▸FCF yield is 5.8%.
- ▸9 years of positive FCF.
- ▸4/4 latest quarters had positive YoY revenue growth.
Trust risks
- ▸2 latest quarters had PAT decline worse than 25% YoY.
- ▸Promoter holding fell 2.4%.
- ▸Debt/equity is 1.31.
Trust Lite uses financial behaviour only. Prefer claim-tested Trust when enough concall claims have later outcomes.
Intrinsic value
Fundamentals
Valuation
- P/E
- 38.50
- P/B
- 7.40
- EV/EBITDA
- 7.54
- Market Cap
- 1104434.00Cr
Profitability
- ROE
- 21.90%
- ROCE
- 18.50%
- ROA
- 6.13%
- Dividend Y
- 0.88%
Growth (CAGR)
- Revenue 5Y
- 16.00%
- EPS 5Y
- 24.00%
- Revenue 3Y
- 15.00%
- EPS 3Y
- 49.00%
Balance Sheet
- Debt/Equity
- 1.31
- Interest Coverage
- 5.55×
- Altman Z
- 3.21
- Book Value
- 245.00
Cash Flow
- FCF Yield
- 5.77%
- FCF Positive Y
- 9/5
- OCF
- 122230.00 Cr
- EPS TTM
- 43.81
Shareholding
- Promoter Hold
- 48.87%
- Promoter Pledge
- 0.00%
- Momentum 52W
- 17%
Financial History
Updated 9/6/2026
Revenue
₹ CrNet Profit
₹ CrReturn on Equity
%Peers
Business-comparable peers in Telecom — ranked by industry, sub-sector, theme-tag overlap, market cap, and U-Score similarity. Green cells mark the best available peer metric in this table.