Bharti Airtel's long-term investment story continues to strengthen as Geojit Financial Services has reaffirmed its BUY recommendation on the telecom giant, citing sustained growth across its India and Africa businesses, expanding digital infrastructure, improving profitability and the strategic opportunity created by its newly approved NBFC licence. Although reported quarterly profit declined because of one-time regulatory charges, the company's core operations remained resilient, supported by higher customer spending, rising ARPU and disciplined cost management. With investments in artificial intelligence, data centres, enterprise services and cloud infrastructure accelerating, Airtel is positioning itself beyond traditional telecommunications. Geojit believes these structural growth drivers justify a revised target price of Rs. 2,180 over the next twelve months.

Airtel's Digital Transformation Continues to Drive Growth

Bharti Airtel is evolving into a diversified digital technology company rather than remaining solely a telecom operator.

Geojit believes the company's strategy of expanding beyond connectivity into enterprise digital services, artificial intelligence infrastructure, financial services and cloud computing is creating multiple long-term revenue streams. Alongside its dominant wireless operations, Airtel continues strengthening customer retention through integrated offerings such as One Airtel, while simultaneously investing in fibre connectivity, data centres and renewable energy initiatives.

This diversified approach provides greater earnings visibility and reduces dependence on traditional telecom revenue alone.

Revenue Growth Remains Strong Across Core Businesses

The March quarter once again demonstrated Airtel's operational resilience despite a challenging global environment.

Consolidated revenue increased 15.7% year-on-year to Rs. 55,383 crore.

India remained the largest contributor, where revenue climbed 7.7% to Rs. 39,566 crore. The improvement was driven by higher customer realisations across mobile services, continued expansion in home broadband and healthy growth within enterprise solutions.

Africa delivered an even stronger performance, with revenue surging 40.9% year-on-year to Rs. 16,035 crore. Growth was supported by rapid customer acquisition, rising mobile data consumption and favourable currency movements.

The company now serves nearly 666 million customers across 15 countries spanning Asia and Africa.

Premium Customer Mix Lifts Operating Performance

Airtel continues benefiting from its premiumisation strategy.

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in India improved to Rs. 257 during Q4FY26 compared with Rs. 245 a year earlier. The increase reflects continued migration toward premium prepaid plans and higher-value postpaid customers.

Higher customer monetisation translated into another quarter of strong operating leverage.

EBITDA rose 16.6% year-on-year to Rs. 31,492 crore, while EBITDA margin expanded to 56.9%, highlighting management's ability to balance growth investments with disciplined cost control.

Operational efficiencies, network optimisation and artificial intelligence-driven automation are expected to support margins further over the coming years.

One-Time Charges Mask Healthy Underlying Earnings

While operating performance remained robust, reported earnings were temporarily affected by exceptional items.

Reported profit after tax declined 25.9% year-on-year to Rs. 9,247 crore.

The decline was largely attributable to a Rs. 3,161 crore regulatory and government levy rather than deterioration in the underlying business.

Adjusted profit tells a different story.

Adjusted PAT reached Rs. 10,486 crore during the quarter, while adjusted profit for the full financial year increased 14.6%, reflecting continued improvement in Airtel's core earnings power.

Geojit therefore views the quarterly earnings decline as non-recurring and does not consider it a threat to the company's long-term outlook.

NBFC Licence Opens a New Chapter for Financial Services

The Reserve Bank of India's approval for an NBFC licence represents an important strategic milestone.

The licence allows Airtel to deepen its presence in financial services by expanding lending opportunities alongside its rapidly growing digital ecosystem.

Combined with Airtel Payments Bank and its extensive customer base, management sees financial services becoming another meaningful growth engine over time.

This initiative complements Airtel's broader digital strategy and enhances opportunities for cross-selling higher-value services.

Large Investments Reinforce Future Competitive Advantage

Management continues investing aggressively to secure long-term market leadership.

Among the most significant developments are:

Expansion toward 1 GW of data centre capacity.
Partnership with Google to establish a major AI-focused data centre in Visakhapatnam.
Continued nationwide fibre rollout.
Growth in sovereign cloud services.
Increasing use of renewable energy across network operations.

The company also continues expanding its physical network.

India's optical fibre footprint increased nearly 9% year-on-year, while population coverage reached approximately 96.5%.

Across Africa, Airtel Money recorded impressive momentum with transaction values rising more than 34%, reflecting growing digital financial adoption across the region.

Management Targets 800 Million Customers

Airtel has outlined ambitious long-term subscriber expansion plans.

Management aims to increase its combined customer base across India and Africa to approximately 800 million users, comprising around 500 million subscribers in India and 300 million across Africa.

To strengthen its African business further, Airtel announced a share-swap transaction that will increase its ownership in Airtel Africa by an additional 16.3%, subject to regulatory approvals.

Meanwhile, Nxtra Data Centers successfully secured US$1 billion from marquee investors, reinforcing confidence in Airtel's expanding digital infrastructure platform.

Financial Outlook Points to Continued Earnings Growth

Geojit expects Airtel's financial performance to remain robust over the next two financial years.

These projections suggest continued earnings acceleration, improving capital efficiency and a progressively stronger balance sheet supported by healthy free cash flow generation.

Valuation and Investment Levels

Geojit's Sum-of-the-Parts valuation incorporates Airtel's wireless business, home broadband operations, Airtel Business, Airtel Africa and its stake in Indus Towers.

Investor Takeaway

Bharti Airtel continues to demonstrate why it remains one of India's highest-quality large-cap telecom investments.

The combination of consistent revenue growth, rising customer monetisation, expanding digital infrastructure, strengthening enterprise business, growing financial services platform and disciplined balance-sheet management provides multiple long-term growth catalysts. Although reported quarterly profit was temporarily affected by regulatory provisions, the company's underlying operating momentum remains intact. Geojit believes Airtel's continued investments in artificial intelligence, cloud services, data centres and premium customer acquisition will support sustainable earnings growth over the coming years, making the stock an attractive long-term opportunity with a target price of Rs. 2,180 over the next twelve months.