Bharti Airtel Q1 results: Net profit jumps 37% to ₹8,167 crore; revenue up 18% - Key highlights

Bharti Airtel Q1 results: Telecom major Bharti Airtel posted its earnings for the quarter ended June 2026 (Q1FY27) on Tuesday, 8 August, after market hours. The company reported a 37% year-on-year increase in net profit to ₹8,167 crore, compared with ₹5,947 crore in the corresponding period last year. Revenue rose 18.3% year-on-year to ₹58,539 crore, up from ₹49,462 crore a year ago.

Key highlights from the telecom major's earnings

1. Revenue growth driven by India and Africa operations

Bharti Airtel reported consolidated quarterly revenues of ₹58,539 crore, up 18.4% YoY and 5.7% QoQ, supported by strong growth across India and Africa operations. India business revenues stood at ₹41,214 crore, rising 9.7% YoY and 4.2% QoQ.

India Mobile revenue grew 9.2% YoY, driven by improved ARPU and strong gains in smartphone data customers. The Homes business posted 33.2% YoY revenue growth, backed by the company's focus on quality customers and its convergence agenda. Airtel Business recorded 12.0% YoY revenue growth, led by healthy orderbook execution and strong momentum in the digital services portfolio. Digital TV revenues increased 1.4% YoY, while revenue from Passive Infrastructure Services rose 4.6% YoY, supported by new site rollouts and colocation expansions.

2. Profitability, margins and balance sheet strengthened

Consolidated EBITDA came in at ₹33,599 crore with an EBITDA margin of 57.4%, while India EBITDA stood at ₹24,781 crore with an EBITDA margin of 60.1%.

Consolidated EBIT stood at ₹19,282 crore with an EBIT margin of 32.9%, while India EBIT came in at ₹13,335 crore with an EBIT margin of 32.4%. Consolidated net income before exceptional items rose to ₹8,057 crore from ₹5,948 crore in Q1 FY26. The consolidated net debt-to-EBITDA (annualised) ratio improved to 1.17 from 1.70 as of June 30, 2025, while the consolidated net debt (excluding lease obligations)-to-EBITDAaL ratio stood at 0.69. Consolidated capex was ₹13,386 crore, including India capex of ₹9,698 crore.

3. Customer additions and operational performance remained robust

During the quarter, Airtel completed an EPS-accretive share swap transaction to increase its stake in Airtel Africa Plc to over 79%, reinforcing its conviction in Africa's long-term growth opportunity and its ability to capture it through disciplined execution, strategic clarity and balance sheet strength. Smartphone data customers increased by 21.1 million YoY and 5.0 million QoQ, and now represent 80% of total mobile customers.

The company recorded its highest-ever quarterly postpaid net additions of 1.0 million. Mobile ARPU improved to an industry-leading ₹264 from ₹250 in Q1 FY26, while mobile data consumption increased 36.0% YoY to 34.4 GB per customer per month. The Homes business recorded strong net customer additions of 3.7 million YoY. During the quarter, Airtel added 14.9 million customers, taking its total customer base to 681 million across 15 countries.

4. Network expansion and business developments

India Mobile revenue increased 9.2% YoY, supported by strong customer additions and an improvement in ARPU to ₹264 from ₹250 in Q1 FY26. Airtel recorded its highest-ever quarterly postpaid customer additions of 1.0 million, taking its postpaid customer base to 30.0 million.

The smartphone data customer base increased by 21.1 million over the past year, marking 7.5% YoY growth. During the quarter, Airtel launched Postpaid Fast Lane, powered by 5G slicing technology. The company expanded its network by deploying 1,579 towers and 14,540 mobile broadband base stations. Over the past year, it rolled out 7,631 additional towers and deployed 45,171 kilometres of fibre.

The Homes business added 473,000 customers, taking the total customer base to 14.7 million. Airtel Business launched Airtel Secure Workforce, described as India's first fully managed and unified Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) security platform. Digital TV generated ₹773 crore in revenue and served a customer base of 16.0 million, while the Africa business ended the quarter with 189 million customers and delivered 21.1% YoY revenue growth in constant currency.

5. Management commentary

Commenting on the performance, Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chairman, said Bharti Airtel delivered another quarter of strong performance, supported by the resilience of its diversified portfolio and sharp execution across businesses.

“We delivered yet another quarter of strong performance, supported by the resilience of our diversified portfolio and sharp execution across businesses. Consolidated revenue rose 5.7% sequentially to ₹ 58,539 crore with strong growth momentum across India and Africa. India revenue increased 4.2% sequentially while Africa delivered 5.7% constant currency growth. During the quarter, we completed a large and an EPS accretive share swap transaction to increase our stake in Airtel Africa to over 79%. This is a strong reflection of our conviction in Africa’s long-term growth potential and the significant opportunities across our businesses,” he said.

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