The shares of Bharti Airtel Limited remained in focus on Thursday as the company announced high investments for its 5G service rollout along with its plan to list its payments business. The Indian telecom operator announced that it is making a strategic plan to invest Rs 27,000-28,000 crore in telecom networks with a focus on 5G rollout.
In addition to that, the company is also planning to list its payments business, Airtel Payments Bank, on the Indian stock exchanges. The move will help Airtel to monetize its digital service offerings. The service was launched in 2017 and currently has more than 50 million users on its platform.
Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company that has a presence in more than 18 countries. According to data shared by the telecom ministry, Bharti Airtel has rolled out 3,293 base stations for 5G till November 26th, 2022.
The shares of the company, however, did not react much to the news and were trading marginally higher at Rs 811 levels till the afternoon on Thursday. The stock remained volatile in the year 2022 and has gained approximately 18 percent Year to Date (YTD).
Sharekhan remains bullish on the 5G stock and has assigned a ‘Buy’ tag with a target price of Rs 1,010 per share which represents an upside of 25% from the current levels.
“Bharti Airtel has industry-leading Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), a growing subscriber base coupled with increased data monetization, and expected tariff hikes in the telecom sector,” highlighted the brokerage firm in its report.
In Q2FY23, the telecom operated a total revenue of Rs 34,526.8 Crore up 22 percent Year on Year from Rs 28,326.4 Crore. Their net profits also grew by 87 percent in the period and stood at Rs 2,622.2 Crore up from Rs 1,399.3 Crore in Q2FY22. The company’s average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to ₹190 in Q2FY23 from ₹183 in Q1FY23.
Written by Anoushka Roy
