Bharti Airtel stock sees muted reaction to reports of payments bank listing, tariff hike

Notably, Airtel has several other digital businesses relating to advertising, cybersecurity, cloud for small and medium enterprises, and communication platforms as a service (CpaaS). But they cannot be monetised on the lines of the payments bank as they are intertwined with the mobility business, the Financial Express report said, quoting the official.

In September, Airtel Payments Bank announced installing 1.5 lakh micro ATMs in a phased manner across tier 2 cities and semi-urban regions for the convenience of its customers.

The Airtel Payments Bank was launched in January 2017 and has around 50 million users on its platform currently. In the previous financial years, Airtel Payments Bank reported a profit of Rs 9 crore on revenues of Rs 941 crore. Bharti Airtel owns 70 percent in the unit, with the balance held by Bharti Enterprises.

In other reports, the telecom major is also considering raising tariffs across India by February after witnessing lower-than-anticipated customer churn post raising the lowest pre-paid tariff by Rs 56 in Odisha and Haryana.

Bharti Airtel raised the lowest tariff from Rs 99 to Rs 155 for prepaid customers in the two circles last month. While the pilot is still ongoing, Mint quoted a company official who said that data from the pilot will be clear by February, post which they would take a call on implementing it across circles.

Shares of Bharti Airtel are trading 0.2 percent lower at Rs 802.15.