More Stories

Informist, Friday, May 1, 2026

By Shakshi Jain and Astha Oriel

NEW DELHI – Indus Towers Ltd. is making steady progress on its planned foray into Africa and expects to deploy the first tower in Zambia within the next six months, the company management said in a post-earnings conference call with analysts Friday. In Uganda and Nigeria, the company is in the last stage of securing regulatory approvals. 

"Commercial frameworks are largely established with the primary customer, and initial orders are in place. In parallel, we have made good progress in setting up the supply chain ecosystem, strengthening operational readiness, positioning us well for efficient and scalable development," Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Prachur Sah said. The company expects that rollouts will begin soon and will ramp up progressively as approvals come through, he added.

For context, the company's first entry into international markets will be in partnership with parent Bharti Airtel Ltd., which already has a strong presence in Africa, holding the third-largest market share there. Additionally, Indus Towers is in talks with several customers besides the anchor client, Sah said. "...the discussions are far more advanced with the anchor customer, and the other customers are being engaged, depending on where they are getting the setup from."

Within India, the company continues to see growth-oriented capital expenditure going forward amid a strong orderbook, as per the management. It, however, did not provide the capex target for the year. About 70% of the company's capital expenditure is geared towards efforts tied to the top line and bottom line growth, while 25% is channelled towards maintenance and replacement requirements. 

"...the Africa expansion is just starting. It is a long-term strategy. So, the portion of Capex for Africa is not going to be that significant to start with," the management said.  

The management reiterated the company's commitment towards reducing diesel consumption by transitioning to cleaner sources of energy. Diesel consumption at the company's sites declined by 7% year-on-year in the March quarter despite an increase in colocations, the management said. "We added close to 25,000 sites with solar access during the quarter, taking the overall sites to about 42,400."

For the full year 2025-26 (Apr-Mar), the company scaled up deployment of energy-efficient solutions, including broader solar energy integration and accelerated deployment of advanced battery technologies. The company also progressively increased the share of lithium-ion batteries across its portfolio, as per the management. "These initiatives are structurally reducing diesel dependence, improving uptime, and supporting more resilient and lower-cost energy frameworks," the management said.

Among other areas, Indus Towers is actively collaborating with stakeholders at both the central and state levels to deploy smart meters across cities following Central Electricity Authority's related notification last month, which mandates smart meters for all customers in areas with communication networks, the management said.  

Answering to a question tied to the rental contract renewal with customer Reliance Jio, the management indicated that it did not extend any incremental discounts. On dividend distribution, the management said the endeavour will remain to follow steady and proactive distribution going forward.

The company's board has recommended a final dividend of INR 14 per share for FY26. The board considered the debt level the company wanted to maintain before decidng to distribute the full free cash flow for the year, to the tune of around INR 37 billion, as dividends, the management said. 

Late Thursday, Indus Towers reported a consolidated net profit of INR 17.93 billion for the March quarter, up nearly 1% on quarter. Its consolidated revenue from operations declined 0.6% sequentially to INR 81.01 billion for the three months.

Thursday, shares of the company ended almost 1% lower at INR 409.95 on the National Stock Exchange. End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.