Synopsis : Bharti Airtel reported a decline in Q4 FY26 net profit due to the absence of a large tax gain recorded last year, even as revenue growth remained strong across its India and Africa businesses. The telecom major continued to add premium customers, improve ARPU, expand broadband operations, and announced a final dividend for shareholders.
Bharti Airtel reported a consolidated net profit of ₹7,325 crore during Q4 FY26, marking a 34% decline compared with ₹11,021 crore reported in the corresponding quarter last year. The earnings also came slightly below analyst expectations, as market estimates had projected quarterly profit at around ₹7,404 crore.
The decline in reported profit was largely due to a high base effect, as Airtel had benefited from a one-time tax gain of ₹2,892 crore during Q4 FY25. Excluding this impact, the company’s operational performance remained strong during the quarter.
Consolidated revenue for Q4 FY26 rose 16% year-on-year to ₹55,383 crore, compared with ₹47,876 crore in the same quarter last year. The growth was supported by steady subscriber additions, higher customer upgrades to premium plans, and continued expansion across both India and Africa operations.
The company’s consolidated pre-tax profit increased 36% year-on-year to ₹13,205 crore from ₹9,724 crore a year ago, reflecting improving operational efficiency and stronger core business momentum.
India mobile revenue grew 8.3% during the quarter, while Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), a key profitability indicator for telecom companies, improved to ₹257 from ₹245 in the year-ago period. Airtel continued to benefit from premiumisation trends as more customers upgraded to higher-value data plans and smartphone usage increased across its network.
During the quarter, Airtel added around 0.8 million postpaid customers, taking its total postpaid subscriber base to 29 million users. Smartphone data customers increased by nearly 20 million over the past year, reflecting growing demand for high-speed mobile internet services.
The company also crossed a major milestone of 650 million customers globally during Q4 FY26, reinforcing its position as one of the world’s largest telecom operators.
Airtel Xstream Fiber and connected homes business continued to deliver strong growth momentum during the quarter. The Homes segment reported 37.3% year-on-year revenue growth as Airtel added 1.1 million new customers, taking the total broadband customer base to 14.2 million users.
Meanwhile, Airtel Business reported sequential growth of 2.6%, supported by stable enterprise demand and digital infrastructure services.
The Digital TV business generated revenue of ₹747 crore during the quarter, with the customer base reaching 16 million users. Airtel also stated that its IPTV services are witnessing strong traction and supporting the company’s broader convergence strategy across telecom, broadband, and entertainment services.
Management highlighted that the Africa business delivered a particularly strong performance during the quarter, while India revenue also continued to grow steadily despite fewer operating days in the quarter.
Capital expenditure during Q4 FY26 stood at ₹16,066 crore as Airtel continued investing aggressively in 5G network expansion, fibre rollout, connected homes, enterprise services, and data centre infrastructure.
Gopal Vittal said FY26 was a milestone year for the company, highlighting achievements including crossing 650 million customers, launching a sovereign cloud platform, securing RBI approval for lending operations through a subsidiary, and accelerating data centre expansion.
The board of Bharti Airtel recommended a final dividend of ₹24 per fully paid-up equity share and ₹6 per partly paid-up equity share, subject to shareholder approval at the upcoming Annual General Meeting.
Disclaimer : This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Investors should consult certified financial advisors before making investment decisions.
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