Indus Towers gains 4%, Bharti Airtel shares up 3%: Airtel gets board's approval to buy additional 5% stake

Indus Towers stock rallied as much as 3.78% to ₹397.25 in the early sessions, while Bharti Airtel stock gained as much as 2.97% to ₹2,135.60 on the NSE.

Bharti Airtel holds a 51.03% stake in Indus Towers as of September 30.

However, the company, in a filing, said that "acquisition doesn't fall within related party transaction(s)".

"A Special Committee of Directors...has granted an enabling approval for acquisition of up to 5% additional stake in Indus Towers Limited, a subsidiary company, in one or more tranches over a period of time," Airtel said in the filing.

Based on Indus Tower's closing price of ₹382.70 on Monday on the BSE, the 5% stake is worth over ₹5,000 crore.

Airtel said that the acquisition will be subject to prevailing market conditions, including liquidity and price considerations, as well as compliance with applicable laws.

Public shareholders, including mutual funds and the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), held a 48.93% stake in Indus Towers as of September 30.

In December 2024, Vodafone sold its 3% stake in Indus Towers for around ₹2,800 crore and exited the company.

Indus Towers shares closed at Rs 382.7 per share on Monday.

Bharti Airtel Q2 Results

Bharti Airtel on Monday reported a more than twofold jump in consolidated net profit at ₹8,651 crore for the September quarter of FY26 (Q2 FY26), primarily due to growth in high-paying smartphone customers and postpaid connections.

The company posted a profit of ₹4,153.4 crore in the same period a year ago. Bharti Airtel Africa too had posted multifold growth in net income at ₹969 crore during the quarter.

Revenue from operations of Bharti Airtel increased by about 26% to ₹52,145 crore during the quarter from ₹41,473.3 crore logged in the same period last year.

India's revenue increased by 22.6% YoY to ₹38,690 crore after including its share of Indus Towers. The company had reported total India revenue at ₹31,561 crore, excluding revenue from Indus Towers.

The company's growth on a YoY basis, including revenue from passive infrastructure, has been 11%, with September 2024 revenue reinstated to ₹34,983.7 crore.

India's revenue without a passive infrastructure share grew by only 10%.

Mobile average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric to determine telecom operators' growth, of Bharti Airtel was higher than its competitor Jio.

Airtel posted an increase of about 10% in ARPU to ₹256 during the quarter, compared to ₹233 seen in the same period a year ago.

Jio last month reported an ARPU of ₹211.4 and revenue from operations of ₹36,332 crore in the same quarter.

"We delivered another quarter of solid performance, achieving a consolidated revenue of ₹52,145 crore, growing 5.4% sequentially and underscoring the strength of our portfolio. Our India revenue, including Passive Infrastructure Services, increased by 2.9%,” Bharti Airtel Vice-Chairman and MD Gopal Vittal said in a statement.

The MD said the Africa business delivered another quarter of standout performance with constant currency revenue growth of 7.1%.

In rupee terms, Airtel Africa had posted around 36% growth in revenue to ₹13,679.5 crore.

“India Mobile business delivered 2.6% revenue growth, adding 5.1 million smartphone customers, maintaining an industry-leading ARPU of ₹256, led by continued premiumisation of the portfolio and a steadfast focus on quality customers. The postpaid segment recorded one of the highest quarterly net additions of around 1 million (10 lakh),” Vittal said.

Bharti Airtel's total customer base grew by 10.7% on a YoY basis to 62.35 crore during the quarter, out of which the India subscriber base stood at 44.97 crore with growth of 10.6% on a YoY basis.