Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest telecom operator, announced a significant 37.3 per cent surge in consolidated net profit to ₹8,167 crore for the first quarter of FY27, primarily fuelled by a strategic focus on acquiring more high-paying premium customers and robust growth in its India operations.
Key Points
- Bharti Airtel's consolidated net profit rose 37.3% to Rs 8,167 crore in Q1 FY27, while revenues increased 18.4% year-on-year to Rs 58,539 crore.
- The company's India business revenue grew 9.7% to Rs 41,214 crore, primarily due to sustained premiumisation of its mobile portfolio and strong performance in home and enterprise segments.
- Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) increased to Rs 264 per month, driven by a record addition of 1 million high-revenue postpaid customers, taking the total postpaid base to over 30 million.
- Net debt significantly decreased by 35% to Rs 81,852 crore in Q1 FY27 from Rs 1.25 trillion a year earlier.
- Airtel's total India subscriber base reached over 491.8 million, with smartphone data customers growing to 301.8 million, accounting for 80% of its total customer base.
India’s second-largest telecommunications (telecom) operator, Bharti Airtel, reported a 37.3 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 8,167 crore for the first quarter (April-June/Q1) of 2026-27 (FY27), missing Bloomberg consensus estimates, on the back of addition of more high-paying premium customers.
Larger subscriber additions were also reflected in revenues, which rose 18.4 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 58,539 crore, beating Street estimates.
Earnings were impacted by an exceptional charge of Rs 353.4 crore as a provision for the in-principle settlement of a commercial dispute involving one of the group’s subsidiaries, but benefited by Rs 389.8 crore following a favourable order related to business losses from earlier years.
Sequentially, revenue rose 5.7 per cent from Rs 55,383 crore in the fourth quarter (January-March/Q4) of 2025-26 (FY26), while net profit increased 11.5 per cent from Rs 7,325 crore.
India Business Performance and Subscriber Growth
The carrier’s India business reported revenue of Rs 41,214 crore in Q1FY27, up 9.7 per cent Y-o-Y from Rs 37,584 crore, driven by sustained premiumisation of its mobile portfolio and strong momentum in its homes and enterprise businesses.
Mobile services, which account for 73 per cent of total revenue, generated Rs 29,928 crore.
Net income from the India business stood at rs 7,261.5 crore in Q1FY27, up from rs 5,292 crore in Q1FY26. Net debt fell 35 per cent to Rs 81,852 crore in Q1FY27 from Rs 1.25 trillion a year earlier.
The average revenue per user (Arpu), a key profitability metric for telecom operators, increased to Rs 264 per month from Rs 257 in Q4FY26, up 5.6 per cent Y-o-Y and 2.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
Arpu was Rs 250 in Q1FY26. Airtel’s Arpu remained higher than Reliance Jio’s ~215.6 per month.
The increase was driven by strong net additions, particularly in the high-revenue postpaid segment, where Airtel added a record 1 million customers during the quarter, taking its total postpaid base to more than 30 million.
Executive Commentary and Strategic Initiatives
“Our postpaid strategy continues to deliver strong outcomes, with our highest-ever customer additions of 1 million. We added 5 million smartphone customers with an industry-leading Arpu of Rs 264,” said Bharti Airtel Executive Vice-Chairman Gopal Vittal.
He did not attribute the record increase to the company’s Postpaid Fast Lane programme, launched during the quarter using 5G slicing technology.
The service sparked a debate over whether it violated net neutrality norms, prompting the government to direct the sector regulator to review the framework.
Consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) rose 19 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 33,599 crore in Q1FY27, beating estimates.
India Ebitda stood at Rs 24,781 crore. The consolidated Ebitda margin was 57.4 per cent, while the India Ebitda margin reached 60.1 per cent.
Subscriber Base and Data Consumption
Airtel’s India subscriber base rose 12.8 per cent Y-o-Y to more than 491.8 million as of June, remaining behind market leader Jio’s 533.3 million.
Its smartphone data customer base grew by 21.1 million over the past year, a 7.5 per cent increase, to 301.8 million, accounting for 80 per cent of its total customer base. Its total customer base, including Africa, grew 12.5 per cent to 680.9 million.
Average data consumption per customer on Airtel’s India network rose 27.7 per cent to 34.4 gigabyte (GB) in the June 2026 quarter from 26.9 GB a year earlier.
“During the quarter, we completed a large and earnings per share-accretive share-swap transaction to increase our stake in Airtel Africa to more than 79 per cent. This is a strong reflection of our conviction in Africa’s long-term growth potential and the significant opportunities across our businesses,” Vittal added.
Capital expenditure (capex) for Q1FY27 stood at ~13,386 crore on a consolidated basis, while capex for India operations was Rs 9,698 crore.
