Bharti Airtel on Monday reported a 168 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,593 crore for the September quarter, and the company unveiled top-level changes, including Gopal Vittal moving into the role of executive vice chairman on January 1, 2026.
Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
India’s second-largest telco – that competes with Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea in the Indian telecom market – clocked quarterly revenues of Rs 41,473 crore, 12 per cent higher than the year-ago period, aided by strong momentum in India and growth in Africa.
The mobile ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) increased to Rs 233 in Q2 against Rs 203 a year ago.
The mobile data consumption rose 22.6 per cent year-on-year, with consumption per customer at 23.9 GB per month.
Bharti Airtel announced that Gopal Vittal — who has helmed the company as Managing Director and CEO for the last twelve years — will move to the role of executive vice chairman on January 1, 2026.
“As part of a structured succession process, Vittal, in addition to being the managing director, is being appointed vice chairman of Bharti Airtel,” the company said in a release.
Shashwat Sharma currently chief operation officer, will be appointed MD and CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd on January 1, 2026.
In preparation for this role, he is being appointed CEO designate of the company.
As CEO designate, Sharma will be responsible for the entire end-to-end consumer business.
Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, said that Airtel has had a distinguished record of well-thought-out structured succession planning.
“I am extremely pleased with the succession and transition plan of leadership at Airtel and there could not have been a better time for Airtel to unveil the new arrangement where change and continuity will go hand in hand,” Mittal said.
Airtel’s consolidated net income (before Exceptional items) came in at Rs 3,911 crore, up by 32.2 per cent year-on-year.
However, its net income (after exceptional items) rose 168 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3,593 crore.
According to the company, during the quarter ended September 30, 2024, the exceptional loss of Rs 853.7 crore was on account of foreign exchange loss(net) due to currency devaluation in its group subsidiaries.
“The net tax credit on the above exceptional item is Rs 2,943 million.
“The net charge allocated to non-controlling interest on the above exceptional items is Rs 2,411 million,” it explained.
On the Q2 scorecard, Vittal said: “We delivered another quarter of solid performance, with India revenue growing 8.7 per cent sequentially.
“Africa maintained strong revenue growth momentum, with 7.7 per cent constant currency growth.
“The flow through tariff repair is in line with our expectation of ARPU increase and SIM consolidation.”
Focus on winning quality customers and driving ‘premiumisation’ helped Sunil Mittal-led telco add 4.2 million smartphone customers.
“…we believe that industry needs further tariff repair for sustained investments given that ROCE for India is still only 11 per cent,” Vittal added.
India’s business posted quarterly revenues of Rs 31,561 crore, up 16.9 per cent year-on-year and up 8.7 sequentially, backed by improved realisations in the mobile segment and sustained momentum in Homes and Airtel Business.
Mobile services India revenues increased by 18.5 per cent, led by tariff repair, strong smartphone data customer additions and underlying mix improvement.
Airtel Business revenues rose 10.7 per cent on the back of the growth in the domestic portfolio.
In a separate BSE filing, on the top-level changes, Airtel said Rakesh Bharti Mittal, having served Airtel for 9 years in his current term, will move on to the boards of Indus Towers Limited and Bharti Hexacom Limited.
“Rajan Bharti Mittal returns to Airtel to be the Bharti Board nominee with immediate effect,” it said.
Earlier this month, Jio Platforms had reported a 23.4 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit for Q2 FY25 to Rs 6,539 crore, as average revenue per user surged to Rs 195.1 per month, bolstered by tariff hike and better subscriber mix.
The revenue from operations of Jio Platforms – which houses Reliance Industries’ telecom and digital businesses – rose 18 per cent to Rs 31,709 crore in the just-ended September quarter.
