Crisil raised Bharti Airtel’s long-term bank facilities rating to AAA/Stable from AA+/Positive, while reaffirming the short-term and commercial paper rating at A1+. Similarly, it upgraded Bharti Telecom’s non-convertible debentures rating to AAA/Stable, while also reaffirming its A1+ rating on commercial paper.
“The rating upgrade factors in improvement in both business and financial risk profiles of the company during fiscal 2025 in line with the expectations of Crisil Ratings,” the agency said in its report.
According to Crisil, the improvement in Airtel’s business risk profile is supported by its steadily increasing revenue market share in the domestic mobile segment—up approximately 4 percentage points from fiscal 2021 to 2025—along with healthy growth in average revenue per user (ARPU). These developments have led to sharp growth in operating profit and improved return metrics.
Crisil noted that the ARPU for Airtel’s India mobile services business improved 17 percent in fiscal 2025 to Rs 245, supported by broad-based tariff hikes of 17-19 percent on average taken by Bharti Airtel Limited (BAL) in June 2024. Also, rising data consumption along with further adoption of 5G services will lead to subscribers up-trading to pricier plans, which will support the overall growth of ARPU in the near to medium term.
In the near to medium term, Crisil Ratings expects strong operating profit with easing capex requirement to continue and contribute towards steady deleveraging.
Diversified Business and Global Presence
BAL’s business risk profile also benefits from diversified operations in Africa along with presence in enterprise services, home broadband, passive infrastructure services and dish-to-home (DTH) segments in India. Airtel’s business segments such as home broadband and enterprise have demonstrated healthy growth over the past few years, and the momentum is expected to continue in the near to medium term, Crisil added.
“The improvement in the business risk profile is also due to the better financial risk profile of the telco, led by a reduction in net leverage, which improved to 2.1 times in FY25 from 2.5 times in FY24, driven by strong earnings growth. Furthermore, improved cash flow led to capex being funded through internal accrual with no reliance on external debt.”
Capex intensity, which averaged 25 percent over the past two fiscal years, is expected to moderate over the medium terms as mass 5G networks have been established. Spectrum capex too is likely to reduce as most of the spectrum purchase was completed in FY23, according to the rating agency.
Spectrum Portfolio
“BAL had acquired significant spectrum for a total consideration of Rs 43,084 crore in the spectrum auction held in August 2022 to initiate pan-India 5G rollout. Compared with that, in the latest auction in June 2024, BAL won Rs 6,857 crore worth of spectrum, of which the majority was for renewal of expiring licenses. Spectrum investment may continue in Africa and, overall, the capex outlay for the Africa mobile business is expected to be stable,” Crisil said.
“A higher-than-expected outgo for network layout or on spectrum acquisition along with any significant debt-funded acquisitions, which could have a bearing on the overall financial risk profile, will continue to remain a key monitorable,” the ratings firm added.
Overall, the ratings continue to reflect the company’s strong market position and healthy and improving operating performance of the domestic mobile and non-mobile segments, diversification across businesses, resilient operations in Africa, healthy debt protection metrics and high financial flexibility. These strengths are partially offset by exposure to technological risks, Crisil said.
“As on March 31, 2025, 4G/5G subscribers accounted for over 98 percent of BAL’s data customer base. It continues to sustain the highest ARPU over the last couple of fiscals. It is expected to continue to improve, led by rising data usage and expected tariff hikes, thereby aiding cash flow generation over the medium term, which will be monitored,” Crisil noted.
Also Read: Bharti Airtel Earnings to Rise Over 24 Months Post Tariff Hike: S&P Global Ratings
Green Energy Initiatives
Crisil also highlighted Airtel’s sustainability initiatives. These include solarising the network by installing rooftop solar panels at over 15,000 owned and third-party sites and adding more than 82 MWp of solar capacity in fiscal 2024. Other measures include network site sharing, hybrid battery bank solutions (using Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid and lithium-ion batteries), and an increase in green sites—93 percent of the network sites were classified as green by the end of fiscal 2024. Green sites are defined as those consuming less than 100 litres of diesel per quarter.
Solarisation of Sites: Airtel Solarises Over 30,000 Network Sites in Major ESG Milestone
Bharti Telecom’s Upgrade
Regarding Airtel’s holding company, Crisil stated that the upgraded ratings reflect Bharti Telecom’s healthy market value-to-debt coverage and its robust financial flexibility, backed by the strong reputation of its promoters—the Bharti Group and Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel).
The upgraded ratings for Bharti Telecom also factor in the expected dividends from Bharti Airtel, which is sufficient to meet the annual interest obligation of the holding company.
“While BTL (Bharti Telecom Ltd) is exposed to refinancing risk as there are significant repayments due in the current fiscal, however, the company has access to capital markets for funding and has an established track record of refinancing the debt at competitive rates. These strengths are partially offset by exposure to market risk,” Crisil said.
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