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Informist, Tuesday, May 19, 2026

 

--Airtel Payments Bank eyeing profit of INR 1.5 bln to INR 2 bln in FY27

--Airtel Payments Bank expects INR 42 bln in annualised revenue FY27

--Bharti Airtel NBFC arm slotted to go live with tech stack by July

--Airtel Payments Bank working to centralise data on cloud to leverage AI

 

By Shakshi Jain

 

NEW DELHI – Airtel Payments Bank Ltd., an indirect subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd., expects a profit of INR 1.5 billion to INR 2 billion in 2026-27 (Apr-Mar), a top company executive said in a quarterly townhall with employees Tuesday. In terms of the annualised top line, the expectation is to end the year with INR 42 billion in the kitty, as per the management. 

 

"...The annualised revenue that we will block across the four quarters, overall, we are looking at around INR 4,200 crores (INR 42 billion) of revenue, which is nearly a 35% growth over current year (FY26). But if you look at quarter-on-quarter, which is important, I mean, we should be exiting this year at around a run rate of INR 4,800 to 5,000 crores (INR 48 billion – INR 50 billion) of annualised revenue," the company official said, adding that the free cashflow generation for the year could add up to nearly INR 1 billion.

 

For FY26, the indirect subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd. recorded a revenue of INR 320.67 billion. The digital bank's net profit for the year is not yet available in the public domain.

 

As part of an internal restructuring, Bharti Airtel transferred its 69.94% equity stake in the bank to its wholly-owned subsidiary Airtel Ltd. last year. 

 

The management did not reveal a timeline for listing of the digital bank on bourses but stressed that the next six months are extremely crucial for the company. "I want to call out that the next six months, starting today, is going to be the most important six months for the bank. Beyond a doubt, it is going to reshape our existence and our shared sense of history," Chief Executive Officer Anubrata Biswas said in the meeting. 

 

Airtel Payments Bank is required to list on the exchanges by September 2027. As per a regulatory mandate of the Reserve Bank of India, payments bank with a net worth exceeding INR 5 billion must go public within three years of hitting the milestone. Airtel Payments Bank's net worth officially surpassed the said figure in September 2024.

 

Answering a query on the bank's plans to expand internationally, Biswas said he was excited about the opportunity India presents for the next 5-10 years. With a current market share of 2.0-2.5% in the business-to-business digital payments in the country and 9.5-10.0% share in the number of accounts opened, Biswas sees ample headroom for the company to grow within the home turf.

 

"The second unique thing we have is that we have access to 350 million customers on our parent side and you won't find very many markets across the world where we have that sort of competitive advantage or access. And the third is that our banking licence gives us access into various payment markets which allow entry only to banks," he added.

 

Biswas also clarified that the idea of a small finance bank model does not excite the company. "Valuations in the market are scant. Small finance banks on an average book value is anywhere between 1.5 to 2.5. Only AU Small Finance Bank has very high value in the market. It takes time to build up and given the low market share we have today, we want to scale up our consumer business and our other businesses dramatically," he said. 

 

According to Biswas, a small finance bank has a very different architecture from a payments bank, which has no loan book and a fundamentally strong digital DNA. Transitioning to a lending business which will require branches, people, and the ability to collect dues from borrowers, would currently amount to a massive distraction for Airtel Payments Bank, he said. "So, we don't think that the small finance bank licence in its current avatar is the right structure for us to move and go away from the roots of the technology capability we are trying to build," he said.

 

On Bharti Airtel non-banking financial services arm Airtel Money Ltd., Biswas said the business is slotted to go live with a technology stack by July, however, his personal estimate is that it may extend to August or even September. "In my mind, it's a big net positive. Ultimately, we'll be able to originate customers and have a closed-loop lending cycle between Airtel NBFC and us, so that we get origination fee without any of the credit risk," he said.

 

Financial services is one of the three adjacencies, or new areas, where Bharti Airtel is sharpening its focus, although it is eying a small and controlled business in the segment currently. Earlier this year, the telecommunications major had said Airtel Money would be capitalised with INR 200 billion, to be injected over the next few years, with Bharti Airtel contributing 70% of the funding. 

 

In a post-earnings conference call with analysts last week, Bharti Airtel management had said the non-banking financial services venture was progressing towards a commercial launch.

 

Delineating the key targets ahead, the management expressed its aspiration to open 1.5 million new savings accounts per month over the next two quarters as compared with 1 million accounts they manage to open currently in a month. In the merchants business, the company's plans warrant setting up of 100,000 sound boxes along with current accounts per month, from 30,000-35,000 sound boxes per month at present, the management said.

 

Airtel Payments Bank also aims to double its share in business-to-business digital transactions in the country to 5% in the near-term.

 

Addressing a question on artificial intelligence, Biswas said, "...What we are trying to do, it's going to be something more deep and more fundamental than the way other banks are playing...AI we can fundamentally use in four areas – growth, experience, controls, and efficiencies."

 

In order to prepare the fundamental infrastructure to leverage AI, Airtel Payments Bank is working towards centralising all customer and non-customer data on the cloud, on which AI models can work efficiently. Work is in play across several individual areas as well, including product development.  End

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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