Bharti Airtel shares in focus today; here’s why
S&P said the upgrade reflects the company’s improving fundamentals and consistent financial strength.
- Nov 18, 2025,
- Updated Nov 18, 2025 8:43 AM IST
Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd are set to remain in focus on Tuesday after global rating agency S&P Global Ratings upgraded the telecom major’s long-term issuer credit rating to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-’. The agency also reaffirmed its ‘Positive’ outlook, signalling the possibility of another upgrade within the next 24 months.
In its rationale attached to Bharti Airtel’s stock exchange filing, S&P said the upgrade reflects the company’s improving fundamentals and consistent financial strength. Bharti Airtel's strong earnings growth and cash flow will drive the telecom company's continued deleveraging over the next 12-24 months, S&P noted.
The agency added that India’s telecom sector is stabilising into a three-player market focused on improving returns, where Bharti has firmly positioned itself as the close second.
S&P’s optimism stems from Bharti’s solid performance in its core India mobile business. It expects earnings to be fueled by its Indian operations, projecting annual subscriber growth of 2 per cent-4 per cent and average revenue per user (ARPU) growth of 6 per cent-8 per cent over the next couple of years.
The momentum is being supported by industry-wide tariff hikes in July 2024, which helped lift Bharti’s ARPU meaningfully. The company increased mobile tariffs by 10 per cent-21 per cent during the hike, pushing ARPU to Indian rupee (INR) 256 in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, it said.
Meanwhile, earlier on Monday, Bharti Airtel informed the stock exchanges that it had expanded its network footprint to the remote Ladakhi villages of Man and Merak. The filing noted that Airtel has become the only telecom operator to bring reliable mobile connectivity to this strategically important and previously unconnected stretch near Pangong Lake, covering nearly 50 km that had long remained without any network coverage.
Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd are set to remain in focus on Tuesday after global rating agency S&P Global Ratings upgraded the telecom major’s long-term issuer credit rating to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-’. The agency also reaffirmed its ‘Positive’ outlook, signalling the possibility of another upgrade within the next 24 months.
In its rationale attached to Bharti Airtel’s stock exchange filing, S&P said the upgrade reflects the company’s improving fundamentals and consistent financial strength. Bharti Airtel's strong earnings growth and cash flow will drive the telecom company's continued deleveraging over the next 12-24 months, S&P noted.
The agency added that India’s telecom sector is stabilising into a three-player market focused on improving returns, where Bharti has firmly positioned itself as the close second.
S&P’s optimism stems from Bharti’s solid performance in its core India mobile business. It expects earnings to be fueled by its Indian operations, projecting annual subscriber growth of 2 per cent-4 per cent and average revenue per user (ARPU) growth of 6 per cent-8 per cent over the next couple of years.
The momentum is being supported by industry-wide tariff hikes in July 2024, which helped lift Bharti’s ARPU meaningfully. The company increased mobile tariffs by 10 per cent-21 per cent during the hike, pushing ARPU to Indian rupee (INR) 256 in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, it said.
Meanwhile, earlier on Monday, Bharti Airtel informed the stock exchanges that it had expanded its network footprint to the remote Ladakhi villages of Man and Merak. The filing noted that Airtel has become the only telecom operator to bring reliable mobile connectivity to this strategically important and previously unconnected stretch near Pangong Lake, covering nearly 50 km that had long remained without any network coverage.