Bharti Airtel (BHARTI IN) – Q4FY26 Result Update – ARPU Growth in Focus; Africa – next growth lever – BUY

Performance in Q4FY26 remained resilient, driven by strong execution across both India and Africa businesses. In India, mobile ARPU grew 5.0% YoY to INR257, though it remained largely flat QoQ (INR259 in Q3FY26). Subscriber additions remained healthy at 4.7mn (vs. 4.4mn in Q3FY26), supporting mobile revenue growth of 8.3% YoY, while EBITDA improved 11.0% YoY. Home services continued to deliver robust performance, with revenue/EBITDA growing 37.3%/38.2% YoY respectively. The B2B business witnessed steady growth, with revenue and EBITDA increasing 3.3% and 5.4% YoY, respectively. However, the digital TV business remained under pressure, with revenue/EBITDA declining 2.3%/14.3% YoY. Consol. EBITDA grew 16.6%/2.3% YoY/QoQ to INR314.9bn in Q4FY26. Revenue and EBITDA in FY26 grew 22.0%/28.5% YoY. Management remains focused on driving ARPU growth through premiumization via bundled offerings, increasing postpaid penetration and continued rural network expansion. Further, management remains optimistic on Africa’s long-term opportunity and believes the region is on a growth trajectory like India over the last decade, which should support future growth. We maintain our Buy rating on the stock with a revised target price of INR2,216 (earlier INR2,266), based on an implied 12x FY28E EV/EBITDA for the India business, while additionally incorporating the value of investments in Airtel Africa, Indus Towers and Bharti Hexacom.