S&P upgrades Bharti Airtel credit rating on strong earnings momentum

S&P Global Ratings on Monday upgraded Bharti Airtel’s credit rating to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-‘ with a positive outlook on expectations of strong earnings growth over the next 24 months.

The rating firm expects the company’s growth to come from its India operations. During the same period, Airtel is expected to increase its subscribers by 2-4%, with average revenue per user (Arpu) growth of 6-8%. Growth will come from customers upgrading to higher priced plans and consuming more data.

“The positive outlook reflects our view that Bharti Airtel’s ongoing debt reduction policy and associated supportive leverage tolerance could support a higher long-term issuer credit rating over the next 24 months,” S&P Global said in a note.

Notably, S&P Global said Bharti Airtel’s ratings are not limited to India’s sovereign rating of ‘BBB’ with a stable outlook.

The improvement in the company’s rating comes at a time when the Supreme Court has allowed the government to grant relief to Vodafone Idea on additional adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues for the period up to 2016-17. Following this, Bharti Airtel also said that it will take up its case with the department of telecommunications (DoT) for reassessment of AGR dues.

Bharti Airtel has managed to increase its Arpu in the Indian mobile segment at a faster pace, thanks to industry-wide tariff increases in July 2024. Last year, Bharti Airtel along with other operators increased the prices of its mobile plans by 10-21%.

Reached the company’s Arpu ₹256 in July-September. Airtel saw a 2.4% sequential increase in Arpu compared to Reliance Jio’s 1.2% growth. ₹211.4 at the end of the September quarter. Arpu is an important metric for telecom companies; the higher it is, the stronger the work.

Bharti Airtel gained wireless subscribers alongside top telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm and partially benefited from a loss at third-ranked Vodafone Idea Ltd, analysts at S&P Global said in a note.

Bharti Airtel had 364 million wireless customers as of September 2025; This figure was 351 million the previous year. The company has reported revenue so far ₹52,145 crore in the September quarter, up 25.7% YoY and 5.4% QoQ. ₹49,463 crore. The company’s revenue was largely driven by growth in its core mobile services business, which focuses on premium services and growth in Airtel Africa.

Net profit increased by 89 percent compared to the previous year ₹6,792 crore, helped by lower losses in subsidiaries and joint ventures during the quarter. Lower financing costs also boosted profits during the quarter. Airtel’s net profit increased by 14.2% sequentially. ₹5,948 crore in the previous quarter.

Although S&P Global has given Bharti Airtel a positive rating, it has expressed concerns that the rising debt at Bharti Airtel’s parent company, Bharti Telecom Ltd, will negatively impact the improvement in the company’s creditworthiness.

S&P Global said the higher debt load at Bharti Telecom risks the company being reliant on dividends from Bharti Airtel to service its debt.