Bharti Airtel becomes the 8th company to surpass ₹6 lakh crore Mcap

The full market capitalisation of Bharti Airtel (partly plus fully paid-up) hit ₹6 lakh crore for the first time on Monday, after Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) resounding victory in state elections buoyed the overall market sentiment.

Share of Bharti Airtel added another 2% in Monday’s trade, taking their year-to-date gain to 28%. In contrast, the benchmark Nifty has gained 14.3% during the same period. The stock has been generating positive returns for the last five years, with 2019 being the highest. After a close to 60% surge in 2019, the stock of Bharti Airtel gained 12% and 37%, respectively in 2020 and 2021.

Other companies that surpassed the Rs 6 lakh crore milestone in the past include—Reliance Industries, TCS, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HUL, Infosys, and ITC. However, an 8% drop in ITC stock since July 20 saw its valuation dropping below the mark.

The net profit of Bharti Airtel came in below street estimates in the second quarter of FY24 hurt by a one-time charge. Yet, the operating margin of the telecom provider expanded on the back of subscriber addition. According to Jefferies, the Q2 performance of Bharti Airtel was encouraging as the company added higher postpaid/4G subscribers, reported higher margin in India, while growth in Africa business helped improve free cash flow.

The brokerage which maintained its rev/EBITDA estimates, expects the company to deliver 16/17% India revenue/EBITDA CAGR over FY24-26. “This along with moderating capex will support deleveraging of $7 billion over FY25-26 which should add to stock returns,” wrote Jefferies in an investor note.

During the financial year 2023, Bharti Airtel had allotted as many as 39.23 crore shares at an issue price of ₹535 per piece (with ₹133.75 paid on application and the balance to be paid in two more additional calls as may be decided by the Board / Committee of the Board of the Company from time to time) to the eligible applicants under the rights issue.

Further during the year, the company also gave out ₹4 as a dividend for fully paid-up equity shares and ₹1 for partly paid-up equity shares. Each carries a face value of ₹5.