Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel delivered another year of strong performance in FY25, with consolidated revenues under ₹173,000 Crores, though impacted by Africa currency devaluation. EBITDA after FLO and lease obligations grew by 21.2% with a 2.3% margin improvement. India revenue (ex-Indus) grew 15.3% and EBITDAaL (ex-Indus) grew 20.2%, with margins at 48%. For Q4 FY25, consolidated revenues were ₹47,876 Crores, and India EBITDAaL margins reached 50.7%, an improvement of 1.4% sequentially.

The company's strategy focuses on building a diversified and resilient portfolio, winning quality customers, delivering brilliant customer experience, leveraging digital capabilities, and war on waste. They are expanding market presence in broadband with FTTH and FWA, enhancing content offerings, and accelerating channel expansion. In mobile, the focus is on postpaid, smartphone upgrades, and international roaming penetration. Network expansion included 19,858 new sites and 44,400 km of fiber deployed in FY25.

In Q4 FY25, the mobile business added 5 million customers and 6.6 million smartphone data customers. Postpaid net adds remained steady at 0.6 million. ARPU for the quarter was ₹245, flat sequentially, but ₹248 on an equal day basis. The company now has 135 million 5G customers, with 5G devices representing 85% of total smartphone shipments. Management believes key ARPU drivers like smartphone upgradation and data monetization remain intact.

The broadband segment added 8.1 lakh customers and rolled out over two million FTTH home passes in Q4. The company strengthened its content offering with exclusive partnerships for Apple TV and Apple Music. Digital TV added 76,000 customers, aided by the IPTV launch, and is undergoing structural changes to eliminate subsidies. Management sees significant growth opportunity in broadband, estimating the industry to grow to 80-90 million homes from the current 46 million.

Airtel Business reported revenue of ₹5316 Crores in Q4, with sequential decline attributed to a strategic shift away from commoditized low-margin businesses. The underlying business continues to see traction, landing two subsea cables (SEA-ME-WE 6 and 2Africa Pearls). Digital businesses, including Cloud, Cybersecurity, Financial Services, IoT, and CPaaS, are receiving additional investments. Airtel Payments Bank's monthly transacting users reached 96 million, growing 10% sequentially, with an annualized revenue run rate of ₹2900 Crores, up 35% YoY.

India capex for FY25 was about ₹30,270 Crores, lower than FY24. The company prepaid ₹42,000 Crores of high-cost DoT debt from past spectrum auctions over the last two years, including ₹5985 Crores in Q4. India's net debt to EBITDAaL stands at 1.5. Management expects FY26 capex to be lower than FY25, with a moderation in radio rollout but continued investment in fiber and other strategic areas. They are committed to deleveraging and increasing dividends.

Management reiterated that India's mobile tariffs are among the lowest globally and need further repair, describing the current one-size-fits-all pricing model as broken. They envision a stratified tariff architecture where entry-level pricing remains stable, but data allowances on higher plans are reduced to encourage upgrades. This approach is deemed essential for improving financial health and sustaining future investments, aiming for a structure where the highest price is 2.5 times the entry price, similar to other markets.

Bharti Airtel is advancing its ESG agenda, including collaboration with Nokia on Green 5G and using AI/ML for energy efficiency in the radio network. Nxtra, India's first data center to deploy AI, has increased asset life and reduced non-IT power consumption by 10%. The company has solarized over 30,708 sites. In FY25, they saved over ₹2200 Crores in network opex through their 'war on waste' initiative, demonstrating a continuous focus on operational excellence.