Bharti Airtel Q2 profit more than doubles to Rs 8,651 crore

Bharti Airtel on Monday reported over twofold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 8,651 crore for September quarter FY26, mainly on account of growth in high-paying smartphone customers and post-paid connections.

Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

The company posted a profit of Rs 4,153.4 crore in the same period a year ago.

Bharti Airtel Africa too had posted multifold growth in net income at Rs 969 crore during the quarter.

Revenue from operations of Bharti Airtel increased by about 26 per cent to Rs 52,145 crore during the quarter from Rs 41,473.3 crore in the same period last year.

The India revenue increased by 22.6 per cent YoY  to Rs 38,690 crore after including its share from Indus Towers.

The company had reported total India revenue at Rs 31,561 crore excluding revenue from Indus Towers.

The company’s growth on YoY basis including revenue from passive infrastructure has been 11 per cent with September 2024 revenue reinstated to Rs 34,983.7 crore.

The India revenue without passive infrastructure share grew by 10 per cent only.

Mobile average revenue per user (ARPU), a key matrix to determine telecom operators’ growth, of Bharti Airtel was higher than its competitor Jio.

Airtel posted an increase of about 10 per cent in ARPU to Rs 256 during the quarter compared to Rs 233 in the same period a year ago.

Jio last month reported an ARPU of Rs 211.4 and revenue from operations of Rs 36,332 crore in the same quarter.

“We delivered another quarter of solid performance, achieving a consolidated revenue of Rs 52,145 crore growing 5.4 per cent sequentially and underscoring the strength of our portfolio.

“Our India revenue, including Passive Infrastructure Services, increased by 2.9 per cent,”  Bharti Airtel, vice-chairman and MD, Gopal Vittal said in a statement.

He said the Africa business delivered another quarter of standout performance with constant currency revenue growth of 7.1 per cent.

In rupee terms, Airtel Africa had posted around 36 per cent growth in revenue to Rs 13,679.5 crore.

“India Mobile business delivered 2.6 per cent revenue growth, adding 5.1 million smartphone customers, maintaining an industry-leading ARPU of Rs 256 led by continued premiumization of portfolio and a steadfast focus on quality customers.

“The postpaid segment recorded one of the highest quarterly net additions of around 1 million (10 lakh),” Vittal said.

Bharti Airtel total customer base grew by 10.7 per cent on YoY basis to 62.35 crore during the quarter out of which India subscriber base stood at 44.97 crore with growth of 10.6 per cent on YoY basis.

“We have further strengthened our position in the postpaid segment with quarterly net additions of 0.95 million customers, bringing our total customer base to 2.75 crore.

“Smartphone data customers increased by 2.22 crore over the past 12 months, representing an 8.4 per cent YoY increase,” a company statement said.

On a quarterly basis, the company reported 78 per cent jump in smartphone data customers with addition of 51 lakh subscribers.

Mobile data consumption on Bharti Airtel network increased by 26.6 per cent on YoY basis to 28.3 GB per month per customer– which is about 27 per cent less than consumption on the Jio network reported at 38.7 GB per month per customer in the September 2025 quarter.

Bharti Airtel’s total capex for the quarter was Rs 11,362 crore with India accounting for Rs 9,643 crore of the total spend. The India capex of the company, excluding investment through Indus Towers, grew by 15 per cent to Rs 7,203.3 crore during the quarter from Rs 6,259.9 crore in September 2024 quarter.

Net debt of the company declined by about 5 per cent to Rs 1,94,713 crore on YoY basis.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 2,073.75 apiece, up 0.93 per cent, on BSE on Monday.