Sunil Bharti Mittal To Hand Over Reins of Bharti Airtel to His Children in Next Decade

New Delhi: Signaling a succession plan, Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal is likely to hand over the reins of Bharti Airtel to his children in the next decade and is keen for promoter firm Bharti Telecom to take back more than 50 per cent stake in the company. Bharti Telecom, owned by the Mittal family and Singtel Group, holds 40.47 percent stake in Airtel.

“My wish is that within the next decade, when I get to a point where I hand over the reins as shareholders to the next generation, I know it’s difficult to break this down into years as Bharti Telecom should go back to controlling 51 per cent or just over 50 per cent stake,” Mittal said in the earnings call for Bharti Airtel’s FY26 financial results. This was something of a surprise to the analysts and media present on the call, as Mittal usually avoids participating in these calls.

Promoter firms including Bharti Telecom, Mittal family holding company Indian Continent Investment, Singtel Group firm Pastel and others jointly hold 48.87 per cent stake in Airtel. Mittal, whose current term at the helm of the company ends on September 30, has been reappointed for a five-year term until September 30, 2031. Bharti Enterprises Holding has a 50.56 percent stake in Bharti Telecom and Singtel has a 49.44 percent stake.

Mittal also said that the shareholding in Airtel could be increased in the next 3-4 years depending on the performance of senior executives running the day-to-day operations of the company. Singtel has a direct stake of around 7 per cent in Bharti Airtel. “To put it in a little more granular perspective, Singtel has a direct stake of 7 per cent in Airtel and had around 6 per cent to equalise. Now with this transaction, once this is done and the shares are issued, the gap will come down to 3.6 per cent (for a target of 51 per cent),” he said.

“Overall, we should see the gap narrowing significantly and Singtel, which is on track to sell its shares directly, now has to sell much less than it did earlier. Over the next 3-4 years to acquire 3.6 per cent stake in Airtel, this will depend on the performance of Airtel executive leadership in executing share buybacks, distributing more dividends and generating cash flow to provide more cash for Bharti Telecom to achieve the target,” he added.

Mittal also said that even Airtel should take initiative to have a higher share of around 90 percent in Airtel Africa. Airtel’s board on Wednesday approved increasing the company’s stake in Airtel Africa by 16.31 per cent to around 79 per cent through a share swap deal worth Rs 28,220 crore, from 62.73 per cent currently.

Mittal said, “UK regulations allow you to go up to 90 percent. With this move, we have gone up to 78 percent. Airtel’s target should be what they are allowed to go up to 90 percent, they should get there.” Mittal said, adding that Airtel Africa makes buybacks from time to time.

“Hopefully, if another block comes into Airtel from another investor in the next few years with the buyback programme, the interest we will probably see in the next 7 years will get to the point where (Airtel) owns more of Africa, so more revenue will flow into mothership Bharti Airtel and we will reward shareholders even more,” he said.

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday reported a 33.5 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 7.325 billion for the March 2026 quarter, mainly due to one-time provisions related to legal and tax liabilities. The company’s annual revenue crossed Rs 2 lakh billion for the first time on the back of a 3.2 per cent customer growth to 66.5 billion, driven by an increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) in India. #Last#