In Short:
India’s Bharti Airtel has joined the $100 billion market cap club, alongside Reliance, TCS, and HDFC Bank. The telecom provider’s market cap grew 3.3x since 2017, driven by its mobile business success. Factors like affordable services, network coverage, and data boom have led to 83% mobile penetration in India. Despite currency devaluation in Africa, Airtel’s consolidated net profit saw a 54% jump YoY. The company’s focus is now on cloud, data centers, and 5G opportunities.
Bharti Airtel Enters $100 Billion Market Capitalisation Club
India’s telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has achieved a significant milestone by entering the $100 billion market capitalisation club in the country, driven by the success of its mobile business.
Market Performance and Growth
Bharti Airtel saw a remarkable growth in its market cap, expanding 3.3x to $100 billion since 2017, as reported by CLSA. This makes it one of the four companies in India – alongside Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and HDFC Bank – with a market cap exceeding $100 billion.
The strong performance is attributed to factors such as high-growth scalable business, effective management, and global competitive edge, as highlighted in an analyst report.
Financial Performance
For the fiscal third quarter ended March this year, Bharti Airtel reported a consolidated net profit jump of 54% year-on-year, driven by increases in data users, per-capita revenue, and mobile internet usage. However, the results were impacted by currency devaluation in Africa.
The company’s average revenue per user (ARPU) for the March quarter stood at Rs 209, and for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, Bharti Airtel experienced a 10.5% drop in profit. Annual revenue from operations, on the other hand, increased by 7.7%.
Market Penetration and Future Growth
Driven by highly affordable services, wide network coverage, and the data boom, Bharti Airtel has achieved 83% mobile penetration in India, making it the world’s second largest mobile market by subscribers. The company currently has 562 million subscribers across 16 countries, with 406 million in India.
The telecom player is focusing on new opportunities in cloud, data centers, and 5G technology, especially in fixed wireless access (FWA).
