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Informist, Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2026

 

--S&P Global Ratings upgrades Bharti Airtel to BBB+; outlook stable

 

MUMBAI – S&P Global Ratings has raised its long-term issuer credit ratings on Bharti Airtel Ltd. to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'. The global ratings agency also raised its ratings on the senior unsecured debt the company issued to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'. It has a 'stable' outlook on the telecommunication company. Growing data consumption in high-growth markets of India and Africa will drive higher earnings for Bharti Airtel and strong discretionary cash flow will lead to further deleveraging, S&P Global Ratings said.

S&P Global Ratings expects the company to operate at lower leverage than before. Bharti Airtel will pay down its debt as earnings and cash flows rise, it said. The ratings agency expects the company's consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation to rise by 8-10% annually over the subsequent two financial years. Over the same period, the agency expects the company's earnings from Africa to rise to 25–27% of its consolidated EBITDA.

 

S&P Global Ratings expects Bharti Airtel's subscribers to increase 3–4% over the next year and average revenue per user to grow 5–7% in India. The company's domestic operations will benefit from higher consumer spending on telecommunication services as well as subscriber additions. S&P Global Ratings expects operating performance in Bharti Airtel's Africa business will outpace India's business earnings over the next 12–24 months. Under its base case, the ratings agency expects the African customer base to grow 9–11% annually, and see a 5-7% annual growth in average revenue per user in dollar terms through FY28. The rebasing of Africa's earnings also reflects their local currencies' relative strength against the rupee, which has depreciated 5-7% against the dollar over the past six months, the agency added.

 

S&P Global Ratings expects Bharti Airtel to incur costs of INR 565 billion in capital expenditure by FY28, up 25% from INR 452 billion in FY26. The company will use the increased capital expenditure for its data centre business, cloud services, and its African operations. "We do not anticipate that the company will need to spend large amounts on spectrum auctions at least until fiscal 2030 (FY30), when its next band of spectrums will be up for renewal," the agency said. However, it added that even with higher discretionary spending, increasing earnings will help discretionary cash flow remain more than adequate. 

 

Debt at Bharti Airtel's parent company will remain a key factor to watch, it said. Even though Bharti Telecom has in the past raised equity to service its own financial obligations, the rising debt level carries the risk of depending on dividends from Bharti Airtel to service its debt, the agency said. Debt at the parent company could rise further, akin to the increase in the past five years, when it raised debt to acquire more stakes in Bharti Airtel. 

 

The agency sees the company's funds from operations-to-debt ratio at 50–52% in FY27 and approaching about 60% in FY28. This is sharply higher than its FY26 estimate of 43.8%. It said a key risk to Bharti Airtel's rating is if the company's leverage does not improve and its funds from operations-to-debt ratio stays below 45% which could happen amid higher competition in its business resulting in significantly weaker earnings. Conversely, the agency said its ratings of the company may improve more if Bharti Airtel manages to deleverage further such that its funds from operations-to-debt ratio remains above 60%. 

 

For the quarter ended March, Bharti Airtel reported consolidated net profit of INR 73.25 billion on revenues of INR 553.83 billion. Wednesday, shares of the company ended 1.3% lower from Tuesday at INR 1,877.30 apiece on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

US$1 = INR 94.66

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

 

Reported by Eshitva Prakash

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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