Bharti Airtel: Credit Upgrade, Market Share Growth & Financial Strength

Bharti Airtel's credit rating upgraded due to deleveraging and strong financial performance. Market share climbed to 33.5%. Leverage is expected to improve to 1.5x by FY2026-27, driven by Indian operations.

Further, the credit history scores agency kept in mind that Bharti’s deleveraging, driven by earnings development and financial obligation reduction, has been main to the upgrade. The business’s early repayment of 260 billion ($ 3 billion) in higher-cost deferred range obligations in FY2024-25 has accelerated its annual report improvement. The firm anticipates Bharti’s combined leverage– determined by modified debt-to-EBITDA– to enhance to 1.8 x by FY2025-26, from 2.3 x in FY2024-25, and to reach 1.5 x by FY2026-27.

Bharti’s Deleveraging and Financial Improvement

The telecommunications major’s customer market share has climbed up continuously to 33.5% as of September 2025, up from 28% in March 2020, as it remains to gain ground on Vodafone Concept. Moody’s noted that the firm’s income market share is most likely also higher, reflecting its industry-leading typical profits per user (ARPU) metrics.

Customer Market Share Growth

Dhruv even more kept in mind that Bharti’s “well-known market placement in the durable Indian telecommunications market, strong monetary profile with leverage trending to 1.5x-1.8 x over the following 12-18 months, showed access to resources markets and helpful shareholders position it well to be ranked over India’s sovereign score.”

Moody’s on Bharti’s Market Position

The agency kept in mind that the recent monetary tightening up by the Central Bank of Nigeria has actually stabilised the Nigerian naira, which has actually valued over recent quarters. This trend, Moody’s claimed, “must give a more predictable operating atmosphere, even more sustaining Airtel Africa’s growth trajectory.”

Nigerian Naira Stabilization

During the first half of FY2025-26, Bharti reported 17% year-on-year profits growth to 1.02 trillion, while EBITDA climbed 20% to 580.9 billion. This growth was mainly driven by its Indian operations, which contribute about 75-80% of complete income and earnings. Moody’s said the strong residential performance underpins the firm’s solid cash flow generation and economic adaptability.

Moody’s recognized that Bharti stays based on governing and emerging market threats in some locations, but kept in mind that India’s telecommunications environment has actually become “fairly steady following the negotiation of the Adjusted Gross Income (AGR) concern in 2021.” Moody’s expects the regulatory authority to continue to be helpful of a three-player market framework, which has actually secured competitors.