Bharti Airtel falls 3% on large block deal, logs Rs 15,000 crore turnover on NSE

Bharti Airtel Ltd saw its shares falling nearly 3 per cent in Friday's trade, with the stock clocking Rs 15,000 crore turnover on NSE within minutes. As per a couple of media reports, a total of 3.1 crore Bharti Airtel shares accounting for 1.3 per cent equity changed hands in a large block today at Rs 1,820 apiece.

The stock fell 2.92 per cent to hit a low of Rs 1,812.50 on NSE, trimming its year-to-date rise to 14 per cent.

Pastel Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel, was the likely seller as the promoter entity was looking to offload Rs 8,568 crore or $1 billion worth telecom stock via block deals. Pastel was looking to sell about 4.76 crore shares at dollar-rupee exchange rate of 85.68. The floor price for the same was set at Rs 1,800 apiece, which was at 3.6 per cent discount to Thursday's closing price of Rs 1,867.20.  

Pastel is one of the promoter group entities in Bharti Airtel, which directly holds 9.49 per cent stake in the telecom operator as of March 31, 2025. The block deal was managed by JP Morgan, the designated broker for the transaction. 

In March last year, the SingTel's investment arm sold 4.9 crore shares — representing 0.8 per cent of the outstanding equity in Bharti Airtel — to GQG Partners. Additionally, SingTel cut its direct stake in Bharti Airtel by 3.3 per cent in 2022, raising approximately S$2.54 billion from the transaction.

Bharti Airtel recently reported strong financial results for the March quarter. Its India mobile segment recorded robust year-on-year growth, with revenue rising 21 per cent, Ebitda climbing 30 per cent, and operating cash flow surging by 58 per cent.

Given the company’s strong recovery potential backed by strong conversion, rising digital portfolio, and moderated Capex, Axis Securities recently maintained its 'Buy' recommendation on the stock. The brokerage suggested a target price of Rs 2,200 on Bharti Airtel.

"We maintain Buy on Bharti (revised 1-year TP of INR 2,035 and 3-year target of Rs 2,720) as we believe India wireless business tariff hikes are likely to be more frequent, going forward, given the consolidated industry structure and higher ARPU requirement for Jio also to justify significant 5G capex and given Jio’s potential IPO," JM Financial said.

This brokerage believes Bharti Airtel's ARPU growth would aided by likely moderation in capex.