Q2 2026 · NSE · Aug 15, 2026

BHARTIARTL The Growth Engine Swapped Continents This Quarter

Bharti Airtel's Q1 FY27 net income attributable to owners rose 37.3% YoY to Rs8,167.4 crore on genuinely clean operating growth - revenue up 18.4%, EBITDA up 19.3% to a fresh 57.4% margin. But nearly half of that consolidated growth, and the quarter's two biggest disclosures, came from Africa: a stake increase to 79.1% via an all-share swap, and a first-ever announcement that Airtel Money is preparing for a London listing in H2 2026, even as India's own mobile revenue growth held below 10% for a third straight quarter.

The Real Growth Engine Swapped Continents This Quarter

BHARTIARTL share price against operating income and its margin, last 12 quarters BHARTIARTL share price against operating income and its margin, last 12 quarters. One graph by quarter: bars are the quarter's operating income in Rs. crore, with two lines over them, the share price at quarter-end and the operating income margin. Q2 FY24: share price Rs. 926, operating income 10,110, margin 27.3%; Q3 FY24: share price Rs. 1,032, operating income 10,180, margin 26.9%; Q4 FY24: share price Rs. 1,229, operating income 9,607, margin 25.5%; Q1 FY25: share price Rs. 1,444, operating income 9,531, margin 24.8%; Q2 FY25: share price Rs. 1,710, operating income 11,101, margin 26.8%; Q3 FY25: share price Rs. 1,588, operating income 13,362, margin 29.6%; Q4 FY25: share price Rs. 1,733, operating income 15,169, margin 31.7%; Q1 FY26: share price Rs. 2,010, operating income 15,882, margin 32.1%; Q2 FY26: share price Rs. 1,878, operating income 17,107, margin 32.8%; Q3 FY26: share price Rs. 2,106, operating income 18,065, margin 33.5%; Q4 FY26: share price Rs. 1,782, operating income 18,727, margin 33.8%; Q1 FY27: share price Rs. 1,852, operating income 19,974, margin 34.1%. Share price at quarter-end (Rs., left axis) Operating income margin, % (right axis) Operating income for the quarter (Rs. crore; bars from zero, values in the bottom row) Rs. 1,000 Rs. 1,500 Rs. 2,000 25% 30% 35% 10,110 10,180 9,607 9,531 11,101 13,362 15,169 15,882 17,107 18,065 18,727 19,974 Rs. 926 27.3% Q2 FY24 Rs. 1,032 26.9% Q3 FY24 Rs. 1,229 25.5% Q4 FY24 Rs. 1,444 24.8% Q1 FY25 Rs. 1,710 26.8% Q2 FY25 Rs. 1,588 29.6% Q3 FY25 Rs. 1,733 31.7% Q4 FY25 Rs. 2,010 32.1% Q1 FY26 Rs. 1,878 32.8% Q2 FY26 Rs. 2,106 33.5% Q3 FY26 Rs. 1,782 33.8% Q4 FY26 Rs. 1,852 34.1% Q1 FY27 Operating

Over these 12 quarters: share price Rs. 926 to Rs. 1,852 (+100%); operating income 10,110 to 19,974 Rs. crore; operating income margin 27.3% to 34.1%. One graph in actual numbers: bars are the quarter's operating income, over them the share price at quarter-end (left axis) and the operating income margin (right axis); each line is fitted to its own range, so read the timing, not the heights. Prices are adjusted for splits.

Bharti Airtel's Q1 FY27 (quarter ended June 30, 2026) headline is clean for once: net income attributable to owners rose 37.3% YoY, from Rs5,947.9 crore to Rs8,167.4 crore, and unlike three of the last four quarters, this isn't primarily a base-effect artifact - net income before exceptional items grew a very similar 35.5% (Rs5,947.9 crore → Rs8,057.2 crore), so the two numbers finally tell roughly the same story. Revenue grew 18.4% to Rs58,539.1 crore, EBITDA» grew 19.3% to a fresh high margin of 57.4% (beating Mar-26's 57.8% margin on an annual basis but this is the highest quarterly margin), and EBIT grew 23.4%.

But where that growth came from is the actual story. India revenue grew 9.7% YoY - and mobile revenue specifically grew 9.2%, holding below the 10% threshold first flagged as broken in the Dec-25 post for a third consecutive quarter. Africa, meanwhile, grew segment revenue 45.4% YoY (Rs17,565.7 crore, up from Rs12,083.4 crore) and segment result 56.0%, and Executive Vice Chairman Gopal Vittal told the call Africa contributed "almost half of our consolidated revenue growth of 16% odd for the year." During the quarter, Bharti also completed a share-swap transaction lifting its effective stake in Airtel Africa from 62.62% to 78.93% (later 79.11% via Airtel Africa's own ongoing buyback), acquiring Indian Continental Investment Limited's 16.31% stake entirely in new Bharti shares rather than cash. And for the first time, management disclosed that Airtel Money is "preparing for a London listing in the second half of 2026" - the first concrete monetization event named for any of Bharti's Africa-adjacent businesses. Vittal's framing on the call was explicit: "I believe Africa today resembles India nearly 10 years ago." A company whose India mobile business is growing high-single-digits is increasingly being carried by a continent most of its India-focused retail investor base probably doesn't price in at all.

The Prescription

Bharti should start disclosing Africa and India as genuinely separate investment cases, not just segments inside one consolidated number. With Africa now near 30% of consolidated revenue, growing 45% YoY in reported terms and carrying almost half of total growth, and with a distinct standalone listing event (Airtel Money's London IPO) now on the calendar, a reader trying to value Bharti off blended consolidated multiples is increasingly valuing two different businesses - a mature, regulator-heavy India telco growing high-single-digits, and a high-growth, higher-currency-risk African financial-services-and-connectivity story - as if they were one. A sum-of-the-parts framing, even informally in the investor deck, would let the market price each piece on its own merits instead of averaging them into a blend that flatters neither.

What it should stop doing: letting a material stake transaction reach 79% ownership of a listed subsidiary via press-release-style bullet points in a deck's "Key Company Developments" section, with the underlying swap ratio, ICIL's identity as a party, and the accounting treatment surfacing only in scattered notes. The Mar-26 post flagged the same pattern with the ICIL swap's initial 16.3% announcement - this quarter it's the completed transaction, and the disclosure discipline hasn't improved. A Rs2,822.2 crore, non-cash equity issuance to a single counterparty for a controlling-stake increase is exactly the kind of related-party-adjacent transaction that deserves a dedicated, plainly-worded note, not a bullet listed among rating-agency upgrades.

Key Financial Metrics

BHARTIARTL net revenue, operating income and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore) BHARTIARTL net revenue, operating income and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore). In Rs. crore, with the operating income margin as a percent of net revenue. Q2 FY24: net revenue 37,044, operating income 10,110, margin 27.3%; Q3 FY24: net revenue 37,900, operating income 10,180, margin 26.9%; Q4 FY24: net revenue 37,599, operating income 9,607, margin 25.5%; Q1 FY25: net revenue 38,506, operating income 9,531, margin 24.8%; Q2 FY25: net revenue 41,473, operating income 11,101, margin 26.8%; Q3 FY25: net revenue 45,129, operating income 13,362, margin 29.6%; Q4 FY25: net revenue 47,876, operating income 15,169, margin 31.7%; Q1 FY26: net revenue 49,463, operating income 15,882, margin 32.1%; Q2 FY26: net revenue 52,145, operating income 17,107, margin 32.8%; Q3 FY26: net revenue 53,982, operating income 18,065, margin 33.5%; Q4 FY26: net revenue 55,383, operating income 18,727, margin 33.8%; Q1 FY27: net revenue 58,539, operating income 19,974, margin 34.1%. Net revenue Operating income Operating income margin (% of net revenue) 37,044 10,110 Q2 FY24 37,900 10,180 Q3 FY24 37,599 9,607 Q4 FY24 38,506 9,531 Q1 FY25 41,473 11,101 Q2 FY25 45,129 13,362 Q3 FY25 47,876 15,169 Q4 FY25 49,463 15,882 Q1 FY26 52,145 17,107 Q2 FY26 53,982 18,065 Q3 FY26 55,383 18,727 Q4 FY26 58,539 19,974 Q1 FY27 27.3% 26.9% 25.5% 24.8% 26.8% 29.6% 31.7% 32.1% 32.8% 33.5% 33.8% 34.1%

Rs. crore; margin is operating income as a percent of net revenue, per quarter.

Q1 FY27 (quarter ended Jun 30, 2026) vs. Q1 FY26, consolidated, audited

FX rates below are the company's own disclosed RBI reference rates for the quarter: INR 94.80 = USD 1 (average, for income-statement lines) and INR 94.35 = USD 1 (June 30, 2026 close, for balance-sheet and market-cap figures); the year-ago quarter used INR 85.42 (average) and INR 85.56 (close). The rupee weakened roughly 11.0% against the dollar on an average basis over the year - a meaningful currency headwind on any dollar-denominated comparison below, even where the rupee figure itself grew strongly.

Metric Q1 FY27 (INR) Q1 FY27 (USD) Q1 FY26 (INR) YoY
Revenue Rs58,539.1 crore ~$6.18B Rs49,462.6 crore +18.4%
EBITDA» (audited results' own "profit before D&A, finance costs, share of JV, exceptional items and tax") Rs33,598.6 crore ~$3.54B Rs28,166.8 crore +19.3%, margin 57.4% - a fresh site-high quarterly margin
Operating Income» (EBIT, audited) Rs19,281.6 crore ~$2.03B Rs15,620.9 crore +23.4%, margin 32.9% vs 31.6%
Profit before exceptional items and tax (audited) Rs14,126.2 crore ~$1.49B Rs10,504.4 crore +34.5%
Exceptional items (net, pretax) Rs353.4 crore charge (African commercial-dispute settlement provision, see Beyond the Usual) Nil n/m - first exceptional item in three quarters
Profit before tax (audited, statutory) Rs13,772.8 crore ~$1.45B Rs10,504.4 crore +31.1%
Net Income (before exceptional items) Rs8,057.2 crore ~$850M Rs5,947.9 crore +35.5%
Net Income» (after exceptional items, total profit for the period, audited) Rs10,011.6 crore ~$1.06B Rs7,421.8 crore +34.9%
...of which, attributable to Bharti Airtel's own shareholders (audited) Rs8,167.4 crore ~$862M Rs5,947.9 crore +37.3%
...of which, attributable to non-controlling interests» (audited) Rs1,844.2 crore ~$195M Rs1,473.9 crore +25.1%
Basic EPS Rs13.38 ~$0.14 Rs10.26 +30.4%
Capex (company-reported) Rs13,386.0 crore ~$1.41B Rs8,307.0 crore +61.2% - see segment detail below
Operating Free Cash Flow» (EBITDA minus capex, company-reported style) Rs20,212.6 crore ~$2.13B Rs19,859.8 crore +1.8% - EBITDA growth was almost entirely offset by the capex jump above
Total Cash (cash and bank balances, end of period, audited balance sheet) Rs9,112.5 crore ~$965.8M Rs5,323.7 crore +71.2%

Net income after exceptional items came in higher than net income before them - the Rs353.4 crore African commercial-dispute charge was more than offset by a separate Rs389.8 crore exceptional tax benefit tied to a favorable order on prior-year business losses (unrelated to the charge itself, see Beyond the Usual). It's a coincidence of timing, not a signal that the exceptional-item distortion of the past two years has resolved.

Balance sheet metric Jun 2026 (INR) Jun 2026 (USD) Jun 2025 (INR) YoY
Total Assets Rs571,545.0 crore ~$60.58B Rs515,036.7 crore +11.0%
Total Liabilities Rs370,898.3 crore ~$39.31B Rs354,288.5 crore +4.7%
Equity attributable to owners of the parent Rs161,815.1 crore ~$17.15B Rs119,723.6 crore +35.2% - inflated by the non-cash ICIL share issuance (see The Prescription), not organic retained-earnings growth alone
Book value per share (this project's own calculation: owners' equity ÷ paid-up shares outstanding) ~Rs259.30 ~$2.75 n/a - shares outstanding basis changed with this quarter's issuance
Net Debt (company-reported, incl. leases) Rs157,239.6 crore ~$16.67B Rs191,579.4 crore -17.9%
Net Debt excluding lease obligations Rs81,852.1 crore ~$8.68B Rs125,489.3 crore -34.8%
Net Debt/EBITDA (annualized, company-reported) 1.17x 1.70x improved sharply
Interest Coverage Ratio (company-reported) 7.64x 6.32x improved

Where Q1 FY27's Revenue Went

Net revenue, and how much of it was left as operating profit and net income, in one view. Figures are the same standalone-quarter figures as the metrics table.

BHARTIARTL Q1 FY27 revenue-to-profit flow Net revenue is the starting point. From net revenue, cost and deduction flows are shaded red, darkest to lightest by size, and operating income splits into other items & tax and net income, shown in green. Figures in Rs. crore and percent of net revenue, Q1 FY27. Net revenue Rs. 58,539 crore · 100% Operating income — Rs. 19,974 crore · 34% Operating costs Rs. 38,565 crore · 66% Other items & tax Rs. 11,807 crore · 20% Net income Rs. 8,167 crore · 14%

Rs. crore, Q1 FY27. Operating costs are net revenue less operating income; other items & tax are operating income less net income.

Key Operational Metrics

A press release, investor presentation, and earnings call transcript were sourced for this quarter; a fully separate financial-statement filing (the SEBI Regulation 33 audited results, segment note, and statutory financial statements) was also located and used as the primary source for the P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow figures above - the presentation's own "Performance at a Glance" and detailed financial sections cross-checked cleanly against it.

Metric Jun-26 Jun-25 YoY
Total customer base (consolidated) ~680,889,000 ~605,485,000 +12.5%
India Mobile customer base ~376,500,000 ~362,800,000 +3.8%
Africa customer base ~189,000,000 ~169,400,000 +11.6%
Mobile Services India ARPU» Rs264 Rs250 +5.4% YoY, and up sequentially from Mar-26's Rs257 - the sequential dip flagged last quarter reversed
Smartphone customer base (India) ~301.8 Mn ~280.7 Mn (implied) +21.1 Mn YoY, +5.0 Mn QoQ
Homes Services customer base ~14,700,000 n/a (~10,955,000 implied from 33.9% YoY growth) +33.9%, crossed 14.7 million
Homes Services net additions (quarter) ~473,000 n/a - down from Mar-26's 1,135,000, a normal post-peak-season deceleration
Digital TV customer base ~16.0 Mn n/a - roughly flat with Mar-26's ~16.0 Mn
Africa data customers ~87.3 Mn ~75.6 Mn +15.5%, now 46.2% of Africa's total base (vs 44.6% a year ago)
Africa Money transaction value ~$61 Bn (quarter) n/a +37.4% YoY

Management's own framing of the ARPU recovery was less triumphant than the number suggests: CEO Shashwat Sharma attributed the sequential improvement to "portfolio premiumisation" and postpaid mix shift via the newly launched "Fast Lane" 5G network-slicing feature, but Vittal repeated - almost verbatim from the Mar-25 call - that "the longer-term pricing architecture of the industry still needs to be repaired and the industry must charge for data consumption," an unprompted reminder that India's last real tariff hike is now well in the past and management still doesn't consider the pricing structure fixed.

Segment Comparison

Bharti Airtel reports seven consolidated segments. This quarter's capex jump (+61.2% YoY at the consolidated level) is concentrated almost entirely in two places, visible below.

Segment Revenue (Q1 FY27) Revenue (Q1 FY26) YoY Segment Result (Q1 FY27) Margin (Q1 FY27) Margin (Q1 FY26)
Mobile Services India Rs29,928.9 crore Rs27,396.6 crore +9.2% Rs9,955.6 crore 33.3% 30.8%
Mobile Services Africa Rs17,565.7 crore Rs12,083.4 crore +45.4% Rs5,969.5 crore 34.0% 31.7%
Airtel Business Rs5,665.4 crore Rs5,057.1 crore +12.0% Rs1,840.4 crore 32.5% 30.8%
Passive Infrastructure Services (Indus Towers) Rs8,525.4 crore Rs8,091.3 crore +5.4% Rs2,728.4 crore 32.0% 34.1%
Homes Services Rs2,287.5 crore Rs1,717.9 crore +33.2% Rs252.9 crore 11.1% 17.2%
Digital TV Services Rs773.4 crore Rs762.8 crore +1.4% Rs(78.4) crore -10.1% 0.3%
Others Rs96.8 crore Rs107.8 crore -10.2% Rs71.1 crore
Total segment revenue Rs64,843.1 crore Rs55,216.9 crore +17.4% Rs19,471.7 crore

("Segment Result" is profit before finance costs, charity/donation, exceptional items and tax - an EBIT-level margin - per the audited segment note.)

Mobile Services India

BHARTIARTL Mobile Services India: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore) BHARTIARTL Mobile Services India: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore). In Rs. crore, with the segment result margin as a percent of segment revenue. Q2 FY24: segment revenue 20,952, segment result 4,678, margin 22.3%; Q3 FY24: segment revenue 21,639, segment result 4,795, margin 22.2%; Q4 FY24: segment revenue 22,066, segment result 4,829, margin 21.9%; Q1 FY25: segment revenue 22,527, segment result 4,841, margin 21.5%; Q2 FY25: segment revenue 24,837, segment result 6,189, margin 24.9%; Q3 FY25: segment revenue 26,269, segment result 7,498, margin 28.5%; Q4 FY25: segment revenue 26,617, segment result 7,872, margin 29.6%; Q1 FY26: segment revenue 27,397, segment result 8,425, margin 30.8%; Q2 FY26: segment revenue 28,117, segment result 8,815, margin 31.4%; Q3 FY26: segment revenue 28,652, segment result 9,091, margin 31.7%; Q4 FY26: segment revenue 28,831, segment result 9,435, margin 32.7%; Q1 FY27: segment revenue 29,929, segment result 9,956, margin 33.3%. Segment revenue Segment result Segment result margin (% of segment revenue) 20,952 4,678 Q2 FY24 21,639 4,795 Q3 FY24 22,066 4,829 Q4 FY24 22,527 4,841 Q1 FY25 24,837 6,189 Q2 FY25 26,269 7,498 Q3 FY25 26,617 7,872 Q4 FY25 27,397 8,425 Q1 FY26 28,117 8,815 Q2 FY26 28,652 9,091 Q3 FY26 28,831 9,435 Q4 FY26 29,929 9,956 Q1 FY27 22.3% 22.2% 21.9% 21.5% 24.9% 28.5% 29.6% 30.8% 31.4% 31.7% 32.7% 33.3%

Rs. crore; margin is segment result as a percent of segment revenue, per quarter. Revenue is the segment revenue (segment note, incl. inter-segment); profit is the segment result (profit before finance costs, charity and donation, exceptional items and tax).

Mobile Services Africa

BHARTIARTL Mobile Services Africa: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore) BHARTIARTL Mobile Services Africa: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore). In Rs. crore, with the segment result margin as a percent of segment revenue. Q2 FY24: segment revenue 10,277, segment result 3,492, margin 34.0%; Q3 FY24: segment revenue 10,297, segment result 3,414, margin 33.2%; Q4 FY24: segment revenue 9,293, segment result 2,883, margin 31.0%; Q1 FY25: segment revenue 9,637, segment result 2,796, margin 29.0%; Q2 FY25: segment revenue 10,163, segment result 3,111, margin 30.6%; Q3 FY25: segment revenue 10,703, segment result 3,176, margin 29.7%; Q4 FY25: segment revenue 11,376, segment result 3,390, margin 29.8%; Q1 FY26: segment revenue 12,083, segment result 3,826, margin 31.7%; Q2 FY26: segment revenue 13,680, segment result 4,489, margin 32.8%; Q3 FY26: segment revenue 15,010, segment result 5,070, margin 33.8%; Q4 FY26: segment revenue 16,034, segment result 5,409, margin 33.7%; Q1 FY27: segment revenue 17,566, segment result 5,970, margin 34.0%. Segment revenue Segment result Segment result margin (% of segment revenue) 10,277 3,492 Q2 FY24 10,297 3,414 Q3 FY24 9,293 2,883 Q4 FY24 9,637 2,796 Q1 FY25 10,163 3,111 Q2 FY25 10,703 3,176 Q3 FY25 11,376 3,390 Q4 FY25 12,083 3,826 Q1 FY26 13,680 4,489 Q2 FY26 15,010 5,070 Q3 FY26 16,034 5,409 Q4 FY26 17,566 5,970 Q1 FY27 34.0% 33.2% 31.0% 29.0% 30.6% 29.7% 29.8% 31.7% 32.8% 33.8% 33.7% 34.0%

Rs. crore; margin is segment result as a percent of segment revenue, per quarter. Revenue is the segment revenue (segment note, incl. inter-segment); profit is the segment result (profit before finance costs, charity and donation, exceptional items and tax).

Africa's 45.4% reported revenue growth is real, not a currency illusion - management's own constant-currency figure came in at $1,836 Mn vs $1,516 Mn a year ago, or 21.1% constant-currency growth, meaning roughly more than half the reported-currency growth is genuine organic expansion, with the rest coming from Naira and other African-currency strength against the rupee (the mirror image of the Mar-26 post's finding, where currency did most of the heavy lifting). Mobile Services India's margin hit yet another site-high at 33.3%, extending the streak flagged every quarter since Dec-24. Passive Infrastructure Services (Indus Towers) is the one segment whose margin moved the wrong way even as revenue grew, down 2.1 points to 32.0% - worth watching given the going-concern language around Indus's largest customer disappeared from the auditor's opinion entirely last quarter. Homes Services' margin compression, flagged as a multi-quarter trend since Sep-25, continued - down another 6.1 points YoY to 11.1% - even as management described a strategic pivot away from low-cost FWA back toward fiber (see below).

Homes Services

BHARTIARTL Homes Services: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore) BHARTIARTL Homes Services: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore). In Rs. crore, with the segment result margin as a percent of segment revenue. Q2 FY24: segment revenue 1,221, segment result 289, margin 23.7%; Q3 FY24: segment revenue 1,272, segment result 300, margin 23.6%; Q4 FY24: segment revenue 1,316, segment result 325, margin 24.7%; Q1 FY25: segment revenue 1,367, segment result 348, margin 25.5%; Q2 FY25: segment revenue 1,432, segment result 338, margin 23.6%; Q3 FY25: segment revenue 1,509, segment result 329, margin 21.8%; Q4 FY25: segment revenue 1,596, segment result 322, margin 20.2%; Q1 FY26: segment revenue 1,718, segment result 296, margin 17.2%; Q2 FY26: segment revenue 1,865, segment result 301, margin 16.2%; Q3 FY26: segment revenue 2,001, segment result 309, margin 15.4%; Q4 FY26: segment revenue 2,191, segment result 317, margin 14.5%; Q1 FY27: segment revenue 2,288, segment result 253, margin 11.1%. Segment revenue Segment result Segment result margin (% of segment revenue) 1,221 289 Q2 FY24 1,272 300 Q3 FY24 1,316 325 Q4 FY24 1,367 348 Q1 FY25 1,432 338 Q2 FY25 1,509 329 Q3 FY25 1,596 322 Q4 FY25 1,718 296 Q1 FY26 1,865 301 Q2 FY26 2,001 309 Q3 FY26 2,191 317 Q4 FY26 2,288 253 Q1 FY27 23.7% 23.6% 24.7% 25.5% 23.6% 21.8% 20.2% 17.2% 16.2% 15.4% 14.5% 11.1%

Rs. crore; margin is segment result as a percent of segment revenue, per quarter. Revenue is the segment revenue (segment note, incl. inter-segment); profit is the segment result (profit before finance costs, charity and donation, exceptional items and tax).

Homes: the fiber pivot is now visibly changing the growth number, not just the strategy

Flagged as a strategic reversal in the last post - Gopal Vittal's "pivoted the whole company back to a dramatic obsession on fiber" comment after FWA chipset/memory costs rose - the effect is now visible in the numbers. Net additions fell to ~473,000 this quarter from Mar-26's 1,135,000, a sharp deceleration that isn't explained by seasonality alone. On this call, Vittal was candid rather than defensive about the switch: he said the FWA-heavy strategy had produced "higher churn and weaker continuity in certain cohorts" and that the company has "tightened acquisition quality" in response - effectively confirming that some of the customer growth chased over the past year was lower-quality than the headline net-add numbers suggested. Segment EBITDA margin fell again to 11.1% (versus 17.2% a year ago), consistent with a business still absorbing the cost of pivoting its acquisition mix mid-stream.

Airtel Business: growth resumed and accelerated, capex more than doubled to fund it

BHARTIARTL Airtel Business: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore) BHARTIARTL Airtel Business: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore). In Rs. crore, with the segment result margin as a percent of segment revenue. Q2 FY24: segment revenue 5,110, segment result 1,543, margin 30.2%; Q3 FY24: segment revenue 5,195, segment result 1,501, margin 28.9%; Q4 FY24: segment revenue 5,462, segment result 1,520, margin 27.8%; Q1 FY25: segment revenue 5,477, segment result 1,474, margin 26.9%; Q2 FY25: segment revenue 5,656, segment result 1,439, margin 25.4%; Q3 FY25: segment revenue 5,646, segment result 1,383, margin 24.5%; Q4 FY25: segment revenue 5,316, segment result 1,665, margin 31.3%; Q1 FY26: segment revenue 5,057, segment result 1,557, margin 30.8%; Q2 FY26: segment revenue 5,276, segment result 1,567, margin 29.7%; Q3 FY26: segment revenue 5,353, segment result 1,579, margin 29.5%; Q4 FY26: segment revenue 5,490, segment result 1,657, margin 30.2%; Q1 FY27: segment revenue 5,665, segment result 1,840, margin 32.5%. Segment revenue Segment result Segment result margin (% of segment revenue) 5,110 1,543 Q2 FY24 5,195 1,501 Q3 FY24 5,462 1,520 Q4 FY24 5,477 1,474 Q1 FY25 5,656 1,439 Q2 FY25 5,646 1,383 Q3 FY25 5,316 1,665 Q4 FY25 5,057 1,557 Q1 FY26 5,276 1,567 Q2 FY26 5,353 1,579 Q3 FY26 5,490 1,657 Q4 FY26 5,665 1,840 Q1 FY27 30.2% 28.9% 27.8% 26.9% 25.4% 24.5% 31.3% 30.8% 29.7% 29.5% 30.2% 32.5%

Rs. crore; margin is segment result as a percent of segment revenue, per quarter. Revenue is the segment revenue (segment note, incl. inter-segment); profit is the segment result (profit before finance costs, charity and donation, exceptional items and tax).

Airtel Business returned to growth in Mar-26 after three quarters of decline tied to the deliberate commodity-voice exit; this quarter growth accelerated to 12.0% YoY with margin actually expanding (30.8% → 32.5%), a healthier combination than last quarter's growth-with-margin-tradeoff. Management's own narrative ties this to enterprise demand "moving beyond traditional connectivity" - cybersecurity, IoT, CPaaS, SD-WAN, and cloud services layered on top of core fiber. The segment incurred capex of Rs943.9 crore for the quarter, part of a broader consolidated capex surge management attributed mostly to accelerated data-center and fiber build-out rather than to this segment specifically.

Passive Infrastructure Services

BHARTIARTL Passive Infrastructure Services: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 7 quarters (Rs. crore) BHARTIARTL Passive Infrastructure Services: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 7 quarters (Rs. crore). In Rs. crore, with the segment result margin as a percent of segment revenue. Q3 FY25: segment revenue 3,529, segment result 2,784, margin 78.9%; Q4 FY25: segment revenue 7,763, segment result 2,795, margin 36.0%; Q1 FY26: segment revenue 8,091, segment result 2,763, margin 34.1%; Q2 FY26: segment revenue 8,222, segment result 2,894, margin 35.2%; Q3 FY26: segment revenue 8,180, segment result 2,805, margin 34.3%; Q4 FY26: segment revenue 8,201, segment result 2,765, margin 33.7%; Q1 FY27: segment revenue 8,525, segment result 2,728, margin 32.0%. Segment revenue Segment result Segment result margin (% of segment revenue) 3,529 2,784 Q3 FY25 7,763 2,795 Q4 FY25 8,091 2,763 Q1 FY26 8,222 2,894 Q2 FY26 8,180 2,805 Q3 FY26 8,201 2,765 Q4 FY26 8,525 2,728 Q1 FY27 78.9% 36.0% 34.1% 35.2% 34.3% 33.7% 32.0%

Rs. crore; margin is segment result as a percent of segment revenue, per quarter. Revenue is the segment revenue (segment note, incl. inter-segment); profit is the segment result (profit before finance costs, charity and donation, exceptional items and tax). Starts at Q3 FY25: earlier periods are not comparable.

Digital TV Services

BHARTIARTL Digital TV Services: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore) BHARTIARTL Digital TV Services: segment revenue, segment result and its margin, last 12 quarters (Rs. crore). In Rs. crore, with the segment result margin as a percent of segment revenue. Q2 FY24: segment revenue 752, segment result 37, margin 5.0%; Q3 FY24: segment revenue 784, segment result 91, margin 11.6%; Q4 FY24: segment revenue 769, segment result 64, margin 8.3%; Q1 FY25: segment revenue 777, segment result 83, margin 10.7%; Q2 FY25: segment revenue 759, segment result 1, margin 0.2%; Q3 FY25: segment revenue 761, segment result 31, margin 4.1%; Q4 FY25: segment revenue 764, segment result -0, margin -0.0%; Q1 FY26: segment revenue 763, segment result 2, margin 0.3%; Q2 FY26: segment revenue 753, segment result -61, margin -8.0%; Q3 FY26: segment revenue 755, segment result -64, margin -8.4%; Q4 FY26: segment revenue 747, segment result -84, margin -11.2%; Q1 FY27: segment revenue 773, segment result -78, margin -10.1%. Segment revenue Segment result Segment result margin (% of segment revenue) 752 37 Q2 FY24 784 91 Q3 FY24 769 64 Q4 FY24 777 83 Q1 FY25 759 1 Q2 FY25 761 31 Q3 FY25 764 -0 Q4 FY25 763 2 Q1 FY26 753 -61 Q2 FY26 755 -64 Q3 FY26 747 -84 Q4 FY26 773 -78 Q1 FY27 5.0% 11.6% 8.3% 10.7% 0.2% 4.1% -0.0% 0.3% -8.0% -8.4% -11.2% -10.1%

Rs. crore; margin is segment result as a percent of segment revenue, per quarter. Revenue is the segment revenue (segment note, incl. inter-segment); profit is the segment result (profit before finance costs, charity and donation, exceptional items and tax).

Beyond the Usual

An in-principle African litigation settlement, offset almost exactly by an unrelated tax benefit

The quarter's sole exceptional item was a Rs353.4 crore pretax charge described only as "provision for in-principle settlement of a commercial dispute in one of the Group's subsidiary[ies] in Africa," with Rs73.8 crore of the net charge allocated to non-controlling interests. No further detail - which country, which counterparty, what the dispute concerns - was disclosed in the filed financial results, the presentation, or the transcript. Separately and unrelatedly, the quarter also carried a Rs389.8 crore exceptional tax benefit "on account of favorable order received in respect of business losses pertaining to earlier year," which happens to be large enough that net income after exceptional items (Rs8,167.4 crore) came out higher than net income before them (Rs8,057.2 crore). Two unrelated one-off items landing in the same quarter and roughly cancelling out is coincidence, not a pattern to read anything into, but the underlying African litigation itself - unnamed and unquantified beyond the provision amount - is worth tracking in future quarters for whether it resurfaces with more detail once the settlement is finalized.

The Africa stake increase to 79% was funded entirely with new Bharti shares, diluting existing shareholders by roughly 0.9%

The ICIL share-swap transaction disclosed as pending in the Mar-26 post completed this quarter: Bharti issued 146,761,335 new equity shares to Indian Continental Investment Limited at Rs1,923 per share (Rs73.4 crore face value plus Rs28,148.8 crore in securities premium, totaling Rs28,222.2 crore) in exchange for 595,204,251 Airtel Africa shares representing ICIL's 16.31% stake, lifting Bharti's effective Airtel Africa shareholding from 62.62% to 78.93%. Paid-up equity capital rose from Rs3,046.8 crore to Rs3,120.2 crore as a direct result - a genuine, if modest, dilution of existing shareholders (roughly 2.4% more shares outstanding) in exchange for a controlling increase in a fast-growing subsidiary, structured as a non-cash swap rather than a cash purchase that would have drawn down the balance sheet. The excess of consideration paid over the corresponding reduction in non-controlling interests, Rs23,260.2 crore, was recognized directly in other equity rather than flowing through the income statement, which is standard accounting for a change in ownership interest that doesn't change control - but it's also why owners' equity jumped 35.2% YoY even though this quarter's own operating net income was a much smaller Rs8,167.4 crore.

Airtel Africa's own ongoing buyback pushed the stake past 79% again, inside the same quarter

Separately from the ICIL swap above, Airtel Africa itself commenced a new share buy-back programme on May 22, 2026, an initial $110 million tranche expected to run through November 27, 2026. As of June 30, 2026, $43 million of that tranche had been executed, mechanically lifting Bharti's effective Airtel Africa shareholding a further 0.18 points, from 78.93% to 79.11%. This is the same stake-creep-via-buyback mechanism flagged with the prior $100 million Airtel Africa buyback programme completed in Mar-26 - a second, larger buyback launching in the same quarter the first one's replacement swap transaction closed suggests this is now a standing capital-allocation pattern at the Africa subsidiary level, not a one-off.

Airtel Payments Bank crossed a monthly transacting user base of ~120 million this quarter, with an annualized revenue run rate "over Rs.3,400 crore" and deposits "a shade under Rs.4,400 crore," growing 17% YoY. Loan disbursements through the broader "Airtel Finance" storefront (which bundles the NBFC, payments bank, and partner lending) now exceed Rs750 crore per month, per CFO Soumen Ray.

Management disclosed a data-center market-share target of roughly 12% today, with an explicit ambition to build "one gigawatt in the next few years" - the first time a specific current-share figure, rather than just the capacity target referenced generally last quarter, has been attached to the Nxtra data-center buildout.

For a fourth consecutive quarter, no analyst on the call asked about Bharti's dividend policy or payout framework, extending the silence first noted in the Sep-25 post - notable given Mar-26's Board actually delivered a real payout increase (Rs24/share, up 50% YoY), which might have been expected to reopen the topic rather than close it.

Management's Framing: Africa as "India 10 Years Ago," and a Financial-Services Storefront Taking Shape

Gopal Vittal's opening remarks spent unusually little time on India and disproportionate time on Africa - a deliberate framing choice given the quarter's numbers. His central claim, that "Africa today resembles India nearly 10 years ago," was backed with specifics: tele-density at 45%, smartphone penetration at 52%, a median age under 18, and home broadband penetration at just 2% against an estimated 30 million broadband-addressable households. He also disclosed that Africa now generates "annualized EBITDA of over Rs.35,000 crore," calling it "a very, very rare achievement for an Indian based company" - a framing aimed as much at investors as at the call's usual analyst audience.

On India, CEO Shashwat Sharma's update leaned on the same portfolio-premiumisation and Fast Lane-driven-postpaid narrative as recent quarters, but repeated Vittal's now-familiar caveat that "the longer-term pricing architecture of the industry still needs to be repaired" - see Key Operational Metrics above. The most concrete new disclosure of the call was the financial-services storefront detail (Airtel Finance/NBFC/Payments Bank figures, see Beyond the Usual) and the Airtel Money London-listing announcement, both signaling that Bharti's Africa-adjacent financial-services businesses are moving from narrative to something closer to a standalone monetization plan.

The Stock Rose 3.9% This Quarter, and 24.2% Over Two Years

Bharti Airtel's shares closed at Rs1,852 on June 30, 2026, per independently sourced market data - up 3.9% from Mar-26's Rs1,784 close, a partial recovery from that quarter's sharp 15.3% decline rather than a return to Dec-25's Rs2,106 high. Over the trailing two years, the stock is up roughly 24.2% (from about Rs1,491.6 at the end of July 2024, the closest available month-end to the two-year mark), a meaningfully smaller two-year gain than Mar-26's 45.2% figure - the rolling two-year window has now moved past the bulk of 2024's rally, and the stock has spent the trailing twelve months essentially range-bound between roughly Rs1,780 and Rs2,106, well below the pace of the underlying EBITDA and net-income growth. No stock split has occurred in this window (Bharti's last split was in 2009), so no adjustment is needed for any price cited above.

Target Valuation Range

Slightly cheaper than last quarter on earnings and book, unchanged on EBITDA; too early to call against peers. Enterprise value is roughly Rs1,313,100 crore, at 37.75x trailing P/E (from 38.83x), 7.14x P/B (from 7.29x) and 9.77x EV/EBITDA (unchanged). The multiples sit against genuinely strong underlying growth (EBITDA +19.3% YoY, net debt/EBITDA down to 1.17x); this section has no peer table.

Market cap → enterprise value Q4 FY26 Q1 FY27
Market capitalization Rs1,087,400 crore (~$114.9B) Rs1,155,900 crore (~$122.5B)
Book value/share Rs244.60 ~Rs259.30
Enterprise value Rs1,252,200 crore (~$132.3B) Rs1,313,100 crore (~$139.2B)
Peer-multiple sanity check Q4 FY26 Q1 FY27
Trailing P/E 38.83x 37.75x (company-reported)
P/B 7.29x 7.14x (this project's own calculation, market cap ÷ owners' equity)
EV/EBITDA 9.77x 9.77x (company-reported; unchanged, as the EV increase and the trailing-EBITDA increase moved at almost exactly the same pace)

The company-reported enterprise value here is market capitalization plus net debt and does not add non-controlling interests (Rs38,832 crore at June 30, 2026), although EBITDA is consolidated; adding them would put EV/EBITDA at about 10.06x instead of 9.77x.

The honest read: the multiples above are a modest bar relative to a business growing consolidated EBITDA in the high-teens, with Africa alone growing constant-currency EBITDA at a pace well above that, and net debt/EBITDA at a multi-year low of 1.17x. Nothing here says the stock is expensive. What a trailing-multiples read can't capture is the optionality this quarter specifically introduced - a prospective Airtel Money London listing that, if it proceeds, would be the first standalone monetization event for any of Bharti's Africa-adjacent financial-services businesses, and isn't reflected in a valuation built entirely off consolidated trailing cash flow.

Bharti Airtel Limited's audited consolidated and standalone financial results, segment note, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and notes to the financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (approved by the Board of Directors August 4, 2026), including the independent auditor's report; the company's press release dated August 4, 2026; the Q1 FY27 investor presentation, which also includes region-wise and segment-wise operational detail, trailing-quarter "Performance at a Glance" figures, and stock market highlights; and the transcript of the Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom Q1 FY27 earnings webinar, held August 5, 2026. Share-price data from independent market-data sources, used for the stock-price comparisons only, not as a source for any company financial figure.