Bharti Airtel completes 79% stake in Airtel Africa; shares turn green

Shares of Bharti Airtel turned positive on Tuesday morning after the company announced increasing its stake in the Africa business entity to 79%. The shares made a high of ₹1,924 apiece at 9:50 am after opening at ₹1,907 apiece on the NSE. The shares have rallied nearly 9% in eight consecutive trading sessions.

The company announced through an exchange filing that it has completed the acquisition of 595,204,251 shares (~16.3% stake) of Airtel Africa from ICIL on June 22, 2026. Consequently, the company’s effective stake in Airtel Africa has increased to ~79%.

The share swap deal worth ₹28,200 crore was approved by nearly 100% of the shareholders to transfer Bharti Airtel’s shares to the promoter group entity Indian Continent Investment Ltd (ICIL). Under the agreement. Consequently, ICIL’s stake in Bharti Airtel has now increased 3.2% from less than 1% earlier.

The acquisition will help Bharti Airtel mop up more profits from the Africa business, which is growing well. Bharti Airtel’s Africa business contributed roughly 27% of the total revenue as of FY26 and has a 179 million customer base, which is ~27% of the total customer base of Bharti Airtel at 666 million.

Shares of Bharti Airtel were in focus after the rival Reliance Jio announced its public issue. Initial estimates suggest that Jio Platforms will list at an implied valuation of ₹12 lakh crore to ₹15 lakh crore, in a premium over Bharti Airtel, which generates higher revenue per user as compared to Jio Platforms.

Despite the strong growth in FY26, the shares of Bharti Airtel have delivered subdued returns in 2026. On a YTD basis, shares fell 9% and traded almost flat over twelve months. On a long-term basis, the shares have rallied 31% CAGR in three years as compared to 49% CAGR profitability growth in the same period