Sunil Mittal to pass Bharti Airtel baton

Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal on Thursday said that he plans to hand over the reins of the telecom major to the next generation in the next ten years.

"I wish to hand over the reins to the next generation in the next 10 years," Mittal said in the company's concall.

Mittal was re-appointed as Chairman of Bharti Airtel for another five-year term on Wednesday, with effect from October 1, 2026. The company's board also approved the re-appointment of Nisaba Godrej as an Independent Director for a second term of five years, effective August 4 this year.

The Airtel CMD said that he was not happy with the Q4 financial results of Airtel and would be working to step up the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of the telecom major.

Airtel's mobile services segment in India contributed 28,831 crore to the total revenue in Q4 FY2026, with growth of 8.3 per cent during the Jan-March quarter. The growth came on the back of a rising customer base, along with about 5 per cent growth in ARPU to Rs 257 from Rs 245 earlier, the company has stated in a regulatory filing.

Bharti Airtel posted a 33.5 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 7,325 crore for the March 2026 quarter, mainly due to one-time provisions related to statutory and tax liabilities.

The company's annual revenue crossed Rs 2 lakh crore for the first time.

Airtel’s consolidated revenue from operations rose 15.6 per cent to Rs 55,383.2 crore in Q4 FY26 from Rs 47,876.2 crore annually, driven by a 40 per cent jump in the Africa business.

Shares of Bharti Airtel rose over 3 per cent on Thursday, a day after the company announced its January-March quarter results. Despite reporting a lower-than-expected net profit in the March quarter, owing to a one-time charge, investors remain largely upbeat on the stock on the back of the company's strong fundamentals. In March 2026, the company crossed a milestone of 65 crore customers as part of its expanding business.