Bharti Airtel, the second largest wireless operator in India is “well-poised” with or without the tariff hikes, Dolat Capital said on Tuesday. Dolat Capital in a report said that Airtel is “well poised to gain market share and grow even in absence” of the tariff hikes. The second largest wireless operator in India on Tuesday reported its second quarter financial results for the period ending September 30, 2020 with Airtel posting its “highest ever consolidated quarterly revenues.” Airtel said that its consolidated quarterly revenues were up 22% year-over-year while the operator also highlighted that it added 14.4 million 4G data users in its second quarter.
Analysts Bullish on Bharti Airtel
Dolat Capital said that Airtel registered “strong all-round beat” in its second quarter of the current financial year “across both India Wireless and Africa.” The firm also said that the “strong business trajectory” of the operator and its “reasonable valuations should re-impose investor confidence and lead to reversal of some of its recent underperformance.”
“While tariff increase is a welcome potential trigger and inevitable for a three player market structure, Bharti is well-poised to gain market share and grow even in absence of the same,” Dolat Capital said in its report. “In our view, Investors would be better-off not-losing the sight on long-term potential upsides for short-term delay in tariff hikes.”
The second largest wireless operator in India reported that its mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) at Rs 162 for the quarter ended September 30, 2020. In the same period in the previous year, Airtel registered an mobile ARPU of Rs 128.
Meanwhile, ICICI Securities in its report on Wednesday said that the Airtel delivered an “impressive all round performance.”
“Bharti’s India mobile print shows marked improvement in many areas such as growth in total subs without ARPU dilution which shows quality of customer addition; lower churn rate increasing life-time value of customers and continued delivery of 4G net add, which has now likely matched the market leader,” ICICI Securities said in its report.
Bharti Airtel 4G Subscriber Addition Ahead of Jio
Dolat Capital highlighted that the Bharti Airtel subscriber base additions is a “key positive after several quarters.”
“We believe Bharti’s market share in 4G smartphone additions to be ahead of Jio in Q2,” Dolat Capital said in its research report.
ICICI Securities in its research report also highlighted that the Airtel subscriber additions “have come at the same ARPU” indicating that the operator has made “high quality” subscriber additions.
“We believe higher 4G subs base will enable Bharti to better transfer tariff hike into ARPU whenever it happens (and believe it is matter on ‘when’ and not ‘if’),” ICICI Securities said in its report.
