Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises, on Thursday announced plans to hand over the reins of Bharti Airtel to his children over the next decade. Mittal, while speaking during the investor call following Airtel’s fourth-quarter results, also said he wants promoter firm Bharti Telecom to regain a stake of over 50% in the company.
Bharti Telecom, jointly owned by the Mittal family and the Singtel Group, currently holds a 40.47% stake in Airtel. The promoter entities, including Bharti Telecom, the Mittal family holding company Indian Continent Investment, Singtel Group firm Pastel, and others, jointly hold a 48.87% stake in Airtel.
“If you really ask me, my own wish is that in the next decade, as I come to a point where I hand over the reins to the next generation as shareholders, Bharti Telecom should get back to a controlling shareholding of 51% or just over 50%. So that’s about 10% more to go,” Mittal said.
Mittal, during Bharti Airtel’s Q4 earnings call on Thursday, said that increasing Bharti Telecom’s stake in Airtel by 10% would require a substantial amount of cash on hand. Based on the company’s current share price and market capitalisation, the required investment would be around Rs 1 lakh crore. Bharti Enterprises Holdings owns a 50.56% stake in Bharti Telecom, while Singtel holds the remaining 49.44%.
Mittal added that the shareholding in Airtel could be increased over the next three to four years, depending on the company’s performance under the leadership of top executives managing day-to-day operations.
Mittal has two sons and a daughter. His son Shravin Mittal founded London-headquartered investment firm Unbound and currently serves as managing director of Bharti Global, the international investment arm of Bharti Enterprises. He also led the group’s investment in satellite communications company Eutelsat OneWeb.
Shravin’s twin brother Kavin Mittal founded messaging platform Hike, which later shifted to gaming before shutting operations last year. Mittal’s daughter, Eisha Mittal, is a lifestyle investor based in London, according to media reports.
Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom service provider, has said that the country’s telecom pricing structure is broken and needs to be repaired.
Speaking during Airtel’s fourth-quarter earnings call, executive vice-chairman Gopal Vittal said the current pricing structure is unfair, with wealthier consumers paying less than they should, while lower-income consumers continue to face relatively high charges.
“You contrast Indian pricing with African pricing — for every GB consumed there, there is corresponding monetization. Here, fundamentally, at about ₹349-₹350, you are capped out because you are running unlimited data plans. Nowhere in the world do you see unlimited data capped at these levels. If you look at markets like the US or Europe, these plans begin at significantly higher levels,” said Vittal.
