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Informist, Tuesday, May 12, 2026

 

By Arya S. Biju

 

MUMBAI – A fall in average revenue per user coupled with higher effective tax rates is expected to lower Bharti Hexacom Ltd.'s net profit for the March quarter. The company's top line is expected to see its slowest sequential rise in the financial year 2025–26 (Apr-Mar).

 

Bharti Hexacom's net profit for the reporting quarter is expected to decline around 7% sequentially and 4% on year to INR 4.51 billion, according to an average of estimates from four brokerages. If that does happen, it will mark the first fall in net profit in three quarters, both sequentially and annually.

 

The company's revenue for the quarter is expected to rise around 2% sequentially and nearly 5% on year to INR 23.99 billion, as per the average of estimates. This will be the slowest sequential revenue growth in three quarters and the slowest on-year rise since Bharti Hexacom got listed in April 2024.

The highest estimate for the company's net profit is INR 4.55 billion from Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd. and the lowest is INR 4.41 billion from JM Financial Institutional Securities Pvt. Ltd. For revenue, the highest estimate is INR 24.07 billion, again from Emkay Global, and the lowest is INR 23.92 billion from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

 

Bharti Hexacom is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd. It provides consumer mobile, fixed line telephone, and broadband services in Rajasthan and the northeastern states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh.

 

While a rise in sales from wireless services, continued upgrades, and improved subscriber mix are seen supporting the company's top line, a sequential fall or largely steady average revenue per user due to two fewer days in the reporting quarter is expected to limit the rise of the overall top line for the quarter. The company is expected to report average revenue per user of INR 251-INR 253 for the March quarter, according to estimates from three brokerages. In the trailing quarter, the company had reported an average revenue per user of INR 253, up 0.8% sequentially and 4.8% on year.

 

Revenue from mobile services for the quarter is expected to grow 1% sequentially to INR 23 billion, according to JM Financial. Sales from the home services vertical are expected to rise by over 10% sequentially and 51.5% on year to INR 1.1 billion, ICICI Securities Ltd. said. In the trailing quarter, the company had reported a revenue of INR 22.72 billion from the mobile services segment and INR 972 million from the homes, office, and other services segment.

 

The company's bottom line, on the other hand, is expected to fall in the March quarter on a higher tax rate compared to the trailing and year-ago quarters, ICICI Securities said. The effective tax rate for the reporting quarter is seen at 25.2%, compared to 16.5% in the trailing quarter and 8.7% in the year-ago quarter, the brokerage said.

 

Bharti Hexacom's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation for the March quarter are expected to improve slightly to INR 12.86 billion from INR 12.82 billion in the trailing quarter, according to the average of estimates. The company's EBITDA margin is expected to be 53.1%, down from 54.3% in the trailing quarter, Motilal Oswal said.

The company will announce its December quarter earnings Wednesday. At 1454 IST Tuesday, shares of Bharti Hexacom were up slightly from Monday at INR 1,467.30 on the National Stock Exchange. The stock is down nearly 14% since the company reported its results for the December quarter. It is down over 28% from its all-time high of INR 2,052.9, recorded on Jul. 1.

 

Of the five research reports on Bharti Hexacom available with Informist, four have a "buy" or equivalent recommendation on the stock and one has a "sell" call. The average target price for the "buy" recommendations is INR 2,088, over 42% higher than the current market price.

 

Following are the March quarter earnings estimates, in INR billion, for Bharti Hexacom from four brokerages in descending order of the net profit estimate:

Brokerage	Net Sales	Net Profit	EBITDA
Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd.	24.07	4.55	12.81
Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.	23.92	4.54	12.71
ICICI Securities Ltd.	24.00	4.52	12.78
JM Financial Institutional Securities Pvt. Ltd.	23.95	4.41	13.14
Average	23.99	4.51	12.86

 

End

 

US$1 = INR 95.60

 

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

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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