Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest telecom operator, is eyeing for listing mulitple assets for fueling its next phase of growth. The two companies that it will look to list in the coming years are Airtel Payments Bank and its data center arm Nxtra. The company will also look to form an infrastructure investment trust (InViT) for its fiber assets. However, for this, it would need to delist its subsidiary - Indus Towers. Then Indus Towers will have to transition into a trust or have a different equity structure.
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In Q1 FY26, Airtel's free cashflow hit Rs 14,000 crore or about $1.6 billion (including the passive infrastructure services). At the same time, its consolidated net debt came down by 9% YoY, to Rs 1.91 lakh crore. The telco's net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 5,948 crore, up 40% YoY. The multiple IPOs will help the Bharti group unlock more value for the investors in the coming years.
At the same time, Airtel's focus on the core telecom business will continue to be there. The telco's ARPU (average revenue per user) has touched Rs 250 during the quarter. With another round of tariff hikes expected later this year, the telco's ARPU could grow beyond Rs 280 before the end of the current financial year.
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Airtel has also maintained that it will continue to raise the dividends it gives to investors as the company debt goes down. As per IIFL Securities, Airtel's net debt-to-Ebitda ratio was the lowest in 15 years. Airtel's going to focus on growing the adjacent businesses as well as the core telecom business. The telco's data center arm Nxtra is likely to see major growth in the near future given the requirement for data centers is fueled by AI (artificial intelligence) adoption.
