Bharti Airtel has delivered impressive first-quarter results with consolidated net profit rising 37.3% year-on-year to ₹8,167 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, compared to ₹5,947 crore in the year-ago period. The telecom operator's strong performance was driven by higher mobile tariffs, strong customer additions and growth across its India and Africa businesses. However, Bharti Airtel shares remained flat post results and are down 6% so far in 2026, as tariff hikes in India's mobile services business remain elusive. Bharti Airtel shares gained 2.19% to ₹1,999.35 following the results announcement, with the stock trading at ₹1,967.90 on NSE on Wednesday morning, down 0.11% after opening higher at ₹2,020. The company announced these results on August 04, with revenue from operations projected to increase 18.3% year-on-year to ₹58,539 crore. Notably, net profit declined 11.5% compared to ₹7,325 crore in Q4FY26, indicating typical quarterly seasonality in the telecom sector.
The company demonstrated continued healthy subscriber additions with ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) growth of 5.6% year-on-year to ₹264, marking the highest ARPU in the industry compared to ₹250 in the year-ago period, as per The Times of India. According to The Times of India, India mobile business saw revenue grow 9.2% due to premiumisation, demonstrating the effectiveness of the company's strategy to move customers to higher-value plans. The company recorded the highest-ever quarterly postpaid customer additions of 1 million, thereby reaching a customer base of 30 million. The smartphone data customer base grew by 21.1 million year-on-year and 5 million quarter-on-quarter, marking a 7.5% YoY increase and now accounting for 80% of total mobile customers. Mobile data consumption rose 36% year-on-year to 34.4 GB per customer per month, demonstrating strong digital adoption across the customer base. Overall subscriber additions stood at 3.3 million compared with 4.7 million additions Q-o-Q, but were higher than the FY26 average of 2.9 million, expanding the subscriber base to 376.5 million.
Prabhudas Lilladher has recommended a buy rating on Bharti Airtel with a target price of ₹2,275, as per their research report dated August 06, 2026. The brokerage's target price represents an upgrade from their earlier estimate of ₹2,226, based on an implied 12.2x FY28E EV/EBITDA for the India business. The revised target incorporates the value of investments in Airtel Africa, Indus Towers and Bharti Hexacom. Bharti Airtel reported consolidated revenue and EBITDA of ₹585.4 billion and ₹333.0 billion respectively, which exceeded Prabhudas Lilladher's estimates of ₹562.4 billion and ₹330.0 billion. The brokerage noted that performance across the Home and Enterprise businesses remained steady, with EBITDA growing 2.2% and 5.7% QoQ respectively, while the Digital business remained subdued with EBITDA flat QoQ and down 15.5% YoY.
Airtel Money is preparing for a London listing in the second half of 2026, according to The Times of India. Airtel Money has now achieved meaningful scale with Q1 revenue of over $400 million, growing at 26% year-on-year in constant currency terms. As per The Times of India, the opportunity ahead remains significant, with 64% of adults across our footprint still without access to a formal bank account. The mobile commerce service allows money transfer via the phone and represents a significant growth opportunity in the fintech sector. This IPO preparation comes at a time when Bharti Airtel reported 37% profit growth in the first quarter, with the strong performance driven by consumers opting for higher value packages, increased data usage, and growth across India and Africa businesses.
Bharti Airtel Executive Vice-Chairman Gopal Vittal emphasized the urgent need for fundamental changes in India's telecom pricing architecture during the company's Q1FY27 earnings call. Vittal stated that "the most important thing is to repair the (pricing) architecture, meaning that for a very low level of pricing, you get unlimited data, which means ARPU is capped. That is not a healthy way to operate." He warned that in the next five to seven years, you will see sustained growth just on account of ARPU as India gets more affluent, advocating for higher data-using subscribers paying more rather than general tariff hikes. When asked about potential tariff increases given healthy growth, Vittal explained that "when the company talks about tariff repair, it is actually about the architecture of mobile plans in place." He emphasized the need for "sensible price architecture" in mobile services, noting that every market has offerings in terms of small, medium, large to extra large and requiring proper pricing structure. Airtel Managing Director and CEO Shashwat Sharma highlighted that "the longer term pricing architecture of the industry still needs to be repaired, and industry must charge for data consumption. This is paramount for sustained ARPU growth in the longer term." Analysts suggest telcos may need another round of tariff hikes ranging 10-15% within this year to sustain 5G network investments, with carriers having raised tariffs three times since 2019.
Revenue from operations increased 18.4% year-on-year to ₹58,539 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, compared to ₹49,462.6 crore in the year-ago period, as per GoodReturns. The company's consolidated EBITDA came in at ₹33,599 crore, reflecting a margin of 57.4%, with net income before exceptional items standing at ₹8,057 crore, up 35.5% from ₹5,948 crore in Q1 FY26. The company's consolidated net debt to EBITDA ratio improved to 1.17 from 1.70 a year ago, reflecting disciplined capital allocation, while capex for the quarter was ₹13,386 crore. The company's profit before exceptional items and tax jumped 34.48% YoY to ₹14,126.2 crore during the first quarter of FY27. At the consolidated level, operating profit grew 19.6% Y-o-Y and 5.8% Q-o-Q, with consolidated operating profit margins expanding 3 basis points to 56.9%, led by a 14-basis-point expansion in the India wireless business. The revenue growth was supported by strong performance across India and Africa operations, with the India business posting a 3.6% sequential growth and the Africa business seeing 45.6% revenue growth.
