Bharti Airtel Limited — Q4 FY26 earnings call

Call held 14 May 2026

Management summary

Bharti Airtel delivered a strong Q4 and full FY26, achieving record consolidated revenues and robust EBITDAaL margins. The company saw significant mobile subscriber additions and a substantial dividend increase. Strategic investments in data centers, financial services, and Airtel Cloud are progressing, alongside a share swap to increase stake in Airtel Africa. However, ARPU growth faced headwinds from geopolitical factors and pricing architecture, while supply chain issues impacted FWA strategy.

Highlights

  • FY26 consolidated revenue reached a lifetime high of ₹2,11,000 crores, driven by strong India and Africa performance.

  • FY26 consolidated EBITDAaL at ₹1,08,000 crores with a 51.2% margin, and India EBITDAaL (excl. passive) grew ~18% to ₹72,500 crores with a 51.7% margin.

  • Q4 consolidated revenues grew 2.6% sequentially to ₹55,400 crores, with EBITDAaL margins improving by 20 basis points to 52%.

  • Strong mobile customer additions in Q4, with 4.7 million net adds, including 5.8 million smartphone customers.

  • Board recommended a significant dividend increase to ₹24 per share for FY26, up from ₹16, aligning with a progressive payout philosophy.

  • Share swap transaction to acquire an additional 16.3% stake in Airtel Africa, a no-cash deal deemed value accretive.

Concerns

  • ARPU increase of only ₹3 in Q4 was not satisfactory, partly linked to the West Asia crisis and international roaming revenues.

  • Geopolitical crisis impacting international roaming, capex due to INR depreciation, gas supply affecting tower build-outs, and energy price increases.

  • Chipset and memory supply issues, along with rising prices, are impacting the Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) business, leading to a pivot back to fiber.

  • ARPU growth is challenged by the 'eat as much as you can on 5G packs' model and the existing pricing architecture in India.

Key financials

3 periods

Headline

  • Net Debt to EBITDAaL
    1.1

Q4

  • Consolidated Revenue
    ₹55,400 Cr
    QoQ +2.6%
  • Consolidated EBITDAaL Margin
    52%
    QoQ +0.2%
  • India Mobile ARPU
    ₹257

FY26

  • Consolidated Revenue
    ₹2.11L Cr
  • Consolidated EBITDAaL
    ₹1.08L Cr
  • Consolidated EBITDAaL Margin
    51.2%
  • India Capex (excl. passive)
    ₹31,000 Cr
  • Operating Free Cash Flow
    ₹41,500 Cr

What they filed

Q1 FY27: revenue up 18.3%, net profit up 34.9% against the same quarter last year.

₹ Cr · quarterly
Line itemQ2 FY25Q3 FY25Q4 FY25Q1 FY26Q2 FY26Q3 FY26Q4 FY26Q1 FY27
Revenue41,473 45,129 47,876 49,463 52,145 +26%53,982 +20%55,383 +16%58,539 +18%
EBITDA21,846 24,597 27,009 27,839 29,561 +35%30,783 +25%31,492 +17%33,303 +20%
Net profit4,153 16,135 12,476 7,422 8,651 +108%8,503 −47%9,247 −26%10,012 +35%
How to read this

₹ crore, as filed. The percentage beside a figure is the change against the same quarter a year earlier — never the quarter before, which would make every seasonal business look like it collapses and booms each year.

Segment breakdown

  • Africa
    29% Share of Revenues
  • India Mobile
    52% Share of Revenues
  • India Non-Mobile
    13% Share of Revenues
  • Indus
    6% Share of Revenues
  • Bharti Hexacom Q4
    ₹2,414 Cr Revenue₹1,155 Cr EBITDAaL47.9% EBITDAaL Margin₹252 ARPU3,70,000 subscribers Net Customer Additions1,48,000 subscribers Homes Net Adds21% Homes Revenue Growth (sequential)₹586 Cr Capex₹570 Cr Operating Free Cash Flow
  • Bharti Hexacom FY26
    9.4% Revenue Growth17.9% EBITDAaL Growth47.6% EBITDAaL Margin₹2,935 Cr Operating Free Cash Flow₹2,000 Cr Net Debt (excl. leases)₹18 Dividend per share

Capital allocation

high confidence
  • Capex ₹31,000 Cr
    • India (excluding passive) ₹31,000 Cr
    • Transport capex (fiber points of presence, quality infrastructure)
    • Edge data centers (56 world class edge data centers in next 18-24 months)
    • Bharti Hexacom Q4 Capex ₹586 Cr
    • Bharti Hexacom FY26 Capex (5G densification, network modernization, homes and IPTV business)
    Capex for FY2026 for India excluding passive was around Rs.31,000 Crores. Operating free cash flow, which is EBITDAaL minus capex was a solid Rs.41,500 Crores plus. Disciplined capital spending and operational excellence continue to strengthen our balance sheet. Net debt to EBITDAaL now stands at 1.1. The Board recommended a dividend of Rs.24 per share, a significant increase over last year's Rs. 16 per share. This is in line with our stated philosophy of progressive increase in payouts. ... Within the core, radio capex, as I have mentioned before, is moderating. In Africa, it is growing but in India it is moderating. The core capex, which is a smaller component of capex, is moderated. Transport capex- we are going to double down and actually do more. We have been doing this systematically for the last four years. Our fiber points of presence need to increase. A lot more quality of infrastructure needs to be put in place. There is a big project that is underway, which we spoke about last time on resilience, just a resilience of our edge data centers and we are focused right now on building in the next 18 to 24 months- 56 world class edge data centers, which will really stand us in very good stead over the next two to three decades and build a strong point of differentiation for us for computation that could happen at the edge over time, so that will continue to be a focus. ... our sense is that we will be in the ballpark of this year, give or take a little bit.
  • Debt 1.1× EBITDA
    • Repayment Large part of debt reduction happened towards the end of the quarter, with money from rights issue and AGR dues payment.
    Net debt to EBITDAaL now stands at 1.1. ... Second port of call is, really, to continue to deleverage to the extent that we need to.
  • Dividend ₹24/share (final)
    The Board recommended a dividend of Rs.24 per share, a significant increase over last year's Rs. 16 per share. This is in line with our stated philosophy of progressive increase in payouts.
  • M&A Airtel Africa Acquisition · Approved

    Acquire additional 16.3% stake in Airtel Africa, confident about long-term growth opportunity led by low tele-density, smartphone penetration, and Airtel Money potential. Value accretive to Airtel shareholders.

    No cash deal, value accretive.

    Moving to the material transaction that was approved by the Board to acquire additional stake in our Africa operations. The Board yesterday approved a share swap transaction between Airtel and ICIL to acquire additional 16.3% in Airtel Africa. We continue to remain confident about the long-term growth opportunity in Africa led by the low tele-density at about 45% on unique SIMs, smartphone penetrations of only about 52%, very low data consumption per customer and overall young demographic profile of the market. Further, there are two large growth opportunities, the first one being homes, enterprise and data centers and the second being Airtel Money where there is a potential for further value unlock with listing. This is a no cash deal and value accretive to Airtel shareholders.
  • M&A Nxtra Fund raise · Announced · Consideration ₹[object Object] (mixed)

    To augment the journey of building 1 gigawatt capacity over the next few years.

    Fund raise for marquee investors alongside participation from Airtel.

    In data centers, we continue to make steady progress against our ambition of building 1 gigawatt capacity over the next few years. To augment this journey, Nxtra announced a $1 billion fund raise for marquee investors alongside participation from Airtel. We see this as a strong validation of both the scale of the opportunity and our execution capabilities in this business.
  • M&A Airtel Money Limited Regulatory approval · Approved

    RBI approval to operate as a non-deposit taking non-banking financial company (NBFC), progressing towards commercial launch.

    Enables expansion of access to simple, secure and innovative financial services.

    In financial services, we reached an important milestone, with our subsidiary Airtel Money Limited receiving the Reserve Bank of India's approval to operate as a non-deposit taking non-banking financial company. We are now progressing towards commercial launch.

Guidance & targets

Dividend

  • Progressive dividend policy Dividend · Ongoing · High confidence Progressive increase in payouts
    The Board recommended a dividend of Rs.24 per share, a significant increase over last year's Rs. 16 per share. This is in line with our stated philosophy of progressive increase in payouts.

    — Soumen Ray, Group Chief Financial Officer

Shareholding

  • Bharti Telecom controlling stake Shareholding · Next decade · Medium confidence 51% or just over 50%
    You know, basically the belief remains that we must have everything through one Company, that should be the controlling promoting shareholder - Bharti Telecom, as you know, historically, has, just, not only been the founding promoter of this Company, has had almost always, for a long period of time, a controlling shareholding of 51%. If you really ask me, my own wish is that in the next, it is hard to put in years on it, in the next decade as I, kind of, come to a point where I hand over the reins to the next generation as shareholders, Bharti Telecom should get back to controlling shareholding- 51% or just over 50%.

    — Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman

  • Singtel equalization path Shareholding · Next 3-4 years · Medium confidence 3.6% gap reduction
    So, 3.6% over the next three years or so, let us say, three to four years, so, one, less than 1% a year, gets Singtel onto the equalization path that they stated in the last two years and that brings us to equal state and then, it will be during this period of effort, depending on how well Gopal, Shashwat and Soumen and the entire management team delivers this wonderful cash flows, more dividends and more buybacks, idea would be to keep using that twin lever to get BTL above the 50% stake, that will be my cherished desire.

    — Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman

  • Airtel Africa stake Shareholding · One day · Low confidence Up to 90%

    Previously 78% → Up to 90%

    Thankfully, the UK regulations allow you to go up to 90%. With this move, in one fell swoop, we have gone up to, now, 78%. Ambition for Airtel should be whatever is allowed to go up to 90%, one day should get there and that is being ably helped by Airtel Africa's own buyback program.

    — Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman

Customer Base

  • Total customers (mobile, home broadband, digital, financial services) Customer Base · Not too far (aspirational) · Low confidence 800 million
    I think, we will get to a 800 million customers by way of mobile, home broadband, our digital services, our financial services and both between India and Africa, getting to 500 million here and 300 million in Africa is a dream which is visible. You can look at that. It is not too far.

    — Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman

Data Centers

  • Nxtra capacity Data Centers · Next few years · High confidence 1 gigawatt
    In data centers, we continue to make steady progress against our ambition of building 1 gigawatt capacity over the next few years.

    — Soumen Ray, Group Chief Financial Officer

Financial Services

  • Capital allocation Financial Services · Next five years · Medium confidence ₹20,000 crores (total), ₹14,000 crores (from Airtel)
    The total amount that we are looking at allocating in the next five years, we have stated Rs. 20,000 Crores, of which Rs. 14,000 Crores has to come from Airtel. It looks like it will be probably significantly less than that, as for the work that we have been doing, it may be much less than that number.

    — Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman

Capex

  • Overall capital allocation Capex · Coming year · Medium confidence In the ballpark of this year
    So the net result of all of that, if you look at the capex, while we do not give guidance typically, our sense is that we will be in the ballpark of this year, give or take a little bit.

    — Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chairman

What to watch in Q1 FY27

ARPU growth acceleration

Next quarter
Current ₹257 (Q4 FY26), +₹3 QoQ
Target Higher ARPU growth, driven by postpaid growth and better plan utilization

Why it matters

ARPU is the most critical metric for telecom operators, indicating pricing power and revenue per user. Management expressed dissatisfaction with current ARPU growth.

Our ARPU for the quarter came in at Rs.257, which on an EDB basis was an increase of Rs.3 for the quarter. We are not happy with the ARPU increase of Rs.3, part of this issue was linked to West Asia crisis and international roaming revenues, but we are now determined to doubling down on all our levers on ARPU and growing and accelerating the space.

Risks & concerns

  • ARPU stagnation due to pricing architecture and 5G packs

    high

    The 'price architecture in this country is broken' with unlimited data plans capping ARPU. The 'eat as much as you can on 5G packs' model creates a headwind.

    Fundamentally, my belief is that the price architecture in this country is broken. You contrast Indian pricing with African pricing. For every GB that is consumed, there is a little bit of revenue that you get. Here, fundamentally at about Rs.340 to Rs.350, you are capped out because you are running unlimited data plans. Now, nowhere in the world do you see this capping out at unlimited data at these levels.

    Management acknowledged

  • Geopolitical crisis impact on operations

    medium

    Impacts include international roaming, capex due to INR depreciation, gas supply affecting tower build-outs, and energy price increases. Mitigating through 'war on waste' initiatives.

    Moving to the material transaction that was approved by the Board to acquire additional stake in our Africa operations. The Board yesterday approved a share swap transaction between Airtel and ICIL to acquire additional 16.3% in Airtel Africa. We continue to remain confident about the long-term growth opportunity in Africa led by the low tele-density at about 45% on unique SIMs, smartphone penetrations of only about 52%, very low data consumption per customer and overall young demographic profile of the market. Further, there are two large growth opportunities, the first one being homes, enterprise and data centers and the second being Airtel Money where there is a potential for further value unlock with listing. This is a no cash deal and value accretive to Airtel shareholders.

    Management acknowledged

  • Rising chipset and memory prices impacting FWA

    medium

    The rising prices of chipsets and memory have made Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) significantly more expensive, leading to a pivot back to fiber for home broadband expansion.

    Sanjesh, there is one other thing that is happening which is, I think Shashwat alluded to this, that the rising prices of chipsets and memory, particularly on fixed wireless access and if you recall, like a year ago when we doubled down on fixed wireless access, the cost to connect to home was more or less the same as fiber. That has fundamentally changed in the last three to four months. The fixed wireless access has now become very much more expensive. So we have pivoted the whole company back to a dramatic obsession on fiber.

    Management acknowledged

  • Handset prices affecting 2G to 4G upgrades

    low

    Softening of handset shipments and rising prices could impact upgrades, though not yet seen as a major impact.

    Ankur, I think the only thing I would add, Ankur, is, there is, we have seen some bit of softening of shipments of handsets, etc., and prices going up, so we have not yet seen any impact but we cannot rule it out.

    Management acknowledged

Q&A highlights

6 direct, 1 evasive
Capital Allocation Strategy and Future M&A Direct
The first and primary port of call is to really invest in the core business. This is the core business in India, the core business in Africa, the core business in Indus Towers, etc., and I think the climb in stake in Africa was predicated on that assumption of really picking up a greater stake in a very valuable asset... The second port of call is, really, to continue to deleverage to the extent that we need to. The third port of call is to invest in some of these adjacencies, which Soumen spoke about. Data centers... financial services... cloud.

Clarifies the company's capital allocation hierarchy, prioritizing core business, deleveraging, and then strategic adjacencies, with a focus on India assets for future M&A.

Asked by Manish Adukia

ARPU Growth and Tariff Hikes Direct
Fundamentally, my belief is that the price architecture in this country is broken. You contrast Indian pricing with African pricing. For every GB that is consumed, there is a little bit of revenue that you get. Here, fundamentally at about Rs.340 to Rs.350, you are capped out because you are running unlimited data plans. Now, nowhere in the world do you see this capping out at unlimited data at these levels.

Highlights management's view that the current pricing structure in India is fundamentally flawed and needs repair, indicating a long-term desire for tariff rationalization despite current market conditions.

Asked by Manish Adukia

Capex Plans for the Coming Year Direct
The first and primary port of call for any capital allocation will be our core business. I think we have no right to play in any adjacencies unless our core is vibrant. So within the core, radio capex, as I have mentioned before, is moderating. In Africa, it is growing but in India it is moderating. The core capex, which is a smaller component of capex, is moderated. Transport capex- we are going to double down and actually do more... our sense is that we will be in the ballpark of this year, give or take a little bit.

Provides insight into the capex strategy, emphasizing core business, moderating radio capex in India, and increased focus on transport capex (fiber) and edge data centers, with overall capex expected to be similar to FY26.

Asked by Ankur Rudra

Nxtra Business Model and Google Partnership Direct
On the Nxtra side, for us, the model is really around tenancy, this is a colocation model, specifically with Google, they are building a very large Al data center in Visakhapatnam and we are, sort of, building it for them, so there is, again, a colocation-led project. We are currently not doing GPU as a service as I had mentioned earlier. We are watching the space because the GPUs that we bought for ourselves in the recent past, a few hundred GPUs, the efficiency of those GPUs is 10x of what the GPUs were two-and-a-half years ago and they are also cheaper, so it is unbelievable, actually, the pace at which these chips are getting more and more efficient.

Clarifies Nxtra's colocation-led tenancy model, particularly with Google, and the company's approach to GPU services, highlighting rapid technological advancements in AI hardware.

Asked by Aditya Suresh

Bharti Telecom's Controlling Stake and Singtel Equalization Direct
my own wish is that in the next, it is hard to put in years on it, in the next decade as I, kind of, come to a point where I hand over the reins to the next generation as shareholders, Bharti Telecom should get back to controlling shareholding- 51% or just over 50%. So, that is 10% more to go and for a Company of this magnitude and size, you can imagine, that it is not a small task. So the principal direction or vision of that I carry in my mind is all share, that we can, from both ICIL or Bharti family entities and Singtel should go into Bharti Telecom as much as possible.

Reveals the Chairman's long-term aspiration to restore Bharti Telecom's controlling stake (51%+) in Airtel, outlining the strategy to achieve this through dividends, potential buybacks, and Singtel's stake reduction.

Asked by Sanjesh Jain

Enterprise Business Growth and Home Broadband Strategy (Fiber vs FWA) Direct
On the home broadband piece, Shashwat will add to this, but I feel, for us to comment on a competitor and how they are performing is not a relevant thing to do today. The way that we look at it, Sanjesh, is, we have various ways to look at our competitive performance. We use OTT platforms like Meta, which have very rich data that is provided on the number of sessions or the number of connections that are run on different mediums, whether it is wireless, it is fixed or it is fixed wireless access and when I look at that over the last few quarters and I must say that this was not true two quarters ago. Over the last couple of quarters, our performance has been very, very delightful.

Explains the company's focus on fiber-first strategy for home broadband due to rising FWA costs (chipsets/memory), while acknowledging FWA's role in augmenting reach in difficult terrains.

Asked by Sanjesh Jain

Regulatory Charge in Q4 Partial
Well, you know, as a prudent organization, we look at all the basket of charges and whatever is happening in the ecosystem and we follow a very prudent accounting policy and we do it from time-to-time. There is a regular cadence that we do, guided by, along with the auditors and by the Board and audit committee. So we have felt that there is something that we should, in a prudence, take provision for, which has been disclosed. There is nothing new, exceptional or unearthly which has come. It is just interpretation of issues as time progresses and various things happen in the ecosystem but nothing new.

Management confirms a provision was taken for an existing regulatory charge due to an interpretation change, but states it's not a new demand or exceptional event.

Asked by Vivekanand Subbaraman

Industry Shift to Usage-Based Pricing Evasive
Vivekanand, I am mindful of time. So, we, probably this will be the last question before I hand it to Vaidehi. As of now, it is a competitive market. We will not do anything that will hurt our business. I have just mentioned that this architecture does not make sense. Let us see how this plays out over time. Vaidehi, back to you.

Management acknowledges the current competitive market and avoids committing to a timeline for shifting to usage-based pricing, despite earlier stating the current pricing architecture is 'broken'.

Asked by Vivekanand Subbaraman

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Detailed narrative

FY26 Consolidated Performance Highlights

Bharti Airtel delivered a strong FY26, with consolidated revenue crossing a lifetime high of ₹2,11,000 crores, driven by robust performance in both India and Africa. Consolidated EBITDAaL reached ₹1,08,000 crores, achieving a margin of 51.2%. India EBITDAaL, excluding passive infrastructure, grew approximately 18% to ₹72,500 crores, with its margin improving by 3.1% to 51.7%. Operating free cash flow (EBITDAaL minus capex) was a solid ₹41,500 crores plus, and the net debt to EBITDAaL ratio stood at 1.1.

Q4 FY26 Performance Overview

For Q4 FY26, consolidated revenues were ₹55,400 crores, representing a sequential growth of 2.6%. Africa maintained its growth trajectory, with Q4 constant currency revenue growth at 1.1%. India revenues, excluding passive, reached ₹36,100 crores. Consolidated EBITDAaL margins for the quarter were 52%, an improvement of 20 basis points. The company added 4.7 million customers in Q4, with 5.8 million being smartphone users, and the India mobile ARPU for the quarter was ₹257.

Strategic Growth Bets and Diversified Portfolio

Bharti Airtel is actively pursuing new growth bets in data centers, financial services, and Airtel Cloud. Nxtra, the data center arm, announced a $1 billion fundraise and aims to build 1 gigawatt capacity. Airtel Money Limited received RBI approval to operate as an NBFC, with its loan service provider business growing strongly, achieving a monthly loan disbursement run rate of over ₹550 crores. Airtel Payments Bank recorded an annualized revenue run rate of ₹3400 crores, growing 23% Y-o-Y, with 120 million monthly transacting users. Airtel Cloud secured 24 deals in Q4, demonstrating traction for its telco-grade sovereign cloud offering.

Capital Allocation and Shareholder Returns

The Board recommended a dividend of ₹24 per share for FY26, a significant increase from ₹16 per share in the previous year, consistent with the company's progressive payout philosophy. A share swap transaction was approved to acquire an additional 16.3% stake in Airtel Africa, a no-cash deal considered value accretive. The company's capital allocation priorities are investing in the core business, deleveraging, and then strategic adjacencies. India capex (excluding passive) for FY26 was ₹31,000 crores, with future capex expected to be in a similar ballpark.

India Business and ARPU Strategy

The company aims to accelerate ARPU growth, acknowledging that the current ARPU increase of ₹3 in Q4 was unsatisfactory, partly due to international roaming impacts. Management believes the Indian pricing architecture is 'broken' due to unlimited data plans, capping ARPU at ₹340-₹350. The strategy focuses on postpaid growth, driving differentiation, and expanding the rural network. For home broadband, the company is pivoting back to a 'fiber-first' approach due to rising chipset and memory prices making Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) more expensive, despite FWA's role in expanding reach.

Bharti Hexacom Performance

Bharti Hexacom Limited also reported strong FY26 results, with revenue and EBITDAaL growth of 9.4% and 17.9% respectively, and an EBITDAaL margin of 47.6%. Operating free cash flow increased by 27% to ₹2935 crores, and net debt (excluding leases) stood at ₹2000 crores. For Q4, Hexacom's revenues were ₹2414 crores (2.3% sequential growth), with an ARPU of ₹252. The company added 370,000 net customers, including 478,000 smartphone users, and 148,000 home broadband net adds, with homes revenue growing 21% sequentially.

Impact of Geopolitical and Supply Chain Factors

The company noted impacts from the ongoing geopolitical crisis, affecting international roaming, capex due to INR depreciation, and gas supply which in turn affects tower build-outs. Energy price increases also impacted Africa operations. Furthermore, rising prices and supply issues for chipsets and memory are affecting the Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) business, prompting a strategic pivot towards fiber deployment for home broadband to mitigate these pressures.

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