Bharti Airtel Q2 Profit Soars, Vittal Named Exec Vice Chairman

New Delhi, Oct 28 (PTI) Bharti Airtel on Monday reported a 168 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,593 crore for the September quarter against Rs 1,341 crore a year ago.

India's second-largest telecom company clocked quarterly revenues of Rs 41,473 crore, 12 per cent higher than the year-ago period, aided by strong momentum in India and growth in Africa.

Bharti Airtel announced that Gopal Vittal -- who has helmed the company as Managing Director and CEO for the last twelve years -- will move to the role of Executive Vice Chairman on January 1, 2026.

Shashwat Sharma currently Chief Operation Officer, will be appointed MD and CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd on January 1, 2026. In preparation for this role, he is being appointed CEO designate of the company.

As CEO designate, Sharma will be responsible for the entire end-to-end consumer business.

On the Q2 scorecard, Vittal said: "We delivered another quarter of solid performance, with India revenue growing 8.7 per cent sequentially. Africa maintained strong revenue growth momentum as well with 7.7 per cent constant currency growth. The flow through tariff repair is in line with our expectation of ARPU increase and SIM consolidation. We reported an industry-leading ARPU of Rs 233".

Focus on winning quality customers and driving premiumisation helped Sunil Mittal-led telco add 4.2 million smartphone customers.

"...we believe that industry needs further tariff repair for sustained investments given that ROCE for India is still only 11 per cent," Vittal added.

India's business posted quarterly revenues of Rs 31,561 crore, up 16.9 per cent year-on-year and up 8.7 sequentially, backed by improved realisations in the mobile segment and sustained momentum in Homes and Airtel Business.

Mobile services India revenues increased by 18.5 per cent, led by tariff repair, strong smartphone data customer additions and underlying mix improvement.

Airtel Business revenues rose 10.7 per cent on the back of the growth in the domestic portfolio.

In a separate BSE filing, on the top-level changes, Airtel said Rakesh Bharti Mittal, having served Airtel for 9 years in his current term, will move on to the boards of Indus Towers Limited and Bharti Hexacom Limited.

"Rajan Bharti Mittal returns to Airtel to be the Bharti Board nominee with immediate effect," it said.