Bharti Airtel - Q2FY21 Result Update - ICICI Securities

Bharti Airtel reported yet another strong operating performance with beat on KPIs such as ARPU, subscriber addition and margins. Consolidated topline came in at Rs. 25785 crore, up 7.7% QoQ, driven by Indian wireless revenues, which were up 7.4% QoQ at Rs. 13832 crore, led by healthy net sub addition of ~13.9 million (mn) and ARPU growth of 3.4% QoQ at Rs. 162. It also witnessed strong 4G net adds of ~14.4 mn during the quarter, with 4G data sub base at 152.7 mn. Africa revenues were up 11.1% QoQ at Rs. 7166 crore. Consolidated EBITDA came in at Rs. 11,642 crore, up 11.9% QoQ with margin of 45.2% (up 167 bps QoQ). Overall Indian margin was up 156 bps QoQ at 45.8% with Indian wireless margins at 42.6%, up 200 bps QoQ, largely a function of operating leverage.

Valuation & Outlook

Bharti Airtel continues to report resilient numbers, especially on the Indian wireless business front. The major positive read through is strong subscriber addition and ARPU traction that percolated into superior EBITDA (incremental margins of ~70%). We see the favourable industry structure of three players (two being strong), a good enough kicker for eventual hike in tariff as well as superior digital play in the medium to long term. Current valuations underestimate massive possibility of growth in a consolidated market and the resilience shown by Airtel so far. We maintain our BUY rating on the stock with a DCF based target price of Rs. 700/share.

For details, click on the link below: https://www.icicidirect.com/mailimages/IDirect_BhartiAirtel_Q2FY21.pdf

Shares of BHARTI AIRTEL LTD. was last trading in BSE at Rs.450.8 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 451.45. The total number of shares traded during the day was 483513 in over 9308 trades.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 456.95 and intraday low of 445.1. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 217809622.

Source : Equity Bulls

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