Newsletter
Bharti Airtel reported a solid set of Q1FY27 results, with numbers beating street expectations.
The numbers:
- Net profit: ₹8,167 crore, up 11.5% QoQ (vs ₹7,325 crore)
- Revenue: ₹58,539 crore, up 5.7% QoQ (vs ₹55,383 crore)
- EBITDA: ₹33,599 crore, up 6.7% QoQ (vs ₹31,492 crore)
- EBITDA margin: 57.4% vs 56.9% (QoQ)
- ARPU: ₹264 vs ₹257 (QoQ)
Let's break it down: one of the key metrics to watch is ARPU (Average Revenue Per User). It shows how much revenue a telecom company earns from each active subscriber and is one of the best indicators of pricing power and customer monetisation.
It is calculated by dividing total revenue by the total number of active subscribers.
What drove the growth: revenue crossed the ₹58,500 crore mark for the first time, supported by higher subscriber monetisation and an improvement in ARPU.
India revenue grew 4.2% QoQ, while the Africa business delivered 5.7% constant currency growth.
Airtel also added 14.9 million customers during the quarter, taking its total customer base to 681 million across 15 countries.
The company continued to expand its network, adding 1,579 towers and 14,540 mobile broadband base stations during the quarter. Over the past year, it also laid 45,171 kilometres of fibre.
The homes business remained a bright spot, with revenue rising 33.2% YoY. Airtel added 473,000 home broadband customers, taking its total base to 14.7 million.
The company also recorded its highest-ever quarterly postpaid customer additions, adding 1 million users to take its postpaid base to 30 million.
Management commentary: Executive Vice Chairman Gopal Vittal said Airtel delivered another quarter of strong execution despite an increasingly competitive environment.
He highlighted robust growth across India and Africa, record postpaid customer additions, continued expansion of the homes business, and disciplined capital allocation as the key drivers of performance.
