Shares of Bharti Airtel gained nearly 2% to hit a new record high on Tuesday, in an otherwise weak broader market, as sentiment was lifted by a rating upgrade. S&P Global Ratings upgraded Bharti Airtel’s long-term issuer credit rating to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-’, with a positive outlook, citing strong earnings momentum, robust cash flows, and a disciplined financial strategy.

Boosted by the rating upgrade, Airtel shares jumped as much as 1.93% to touch a fresh all-time high of ₹2,153 on the BSE. The telecom heavyweight breached its previous high of ₹2,135.75, touched on November 4, 2025. The stock has rebounded 42.5% from its 52-week low of ₹1,510.80 hit on November 21, 2024.

At the time of reporting, Airtel’s share price was up 1.71% at ₹2,148.35 apiece on the BSE, while its market capitalisation stood at ₹12.25 lakh crore. The stock has added over 5% in a week, and nearly 7% in the past month. In the past three months, the telecom major has gained 13.6%, 18.5% in six months, and 40% over the past year.

S&P upgrades credit rating

S&P Global Ratings has revised Bharti Airtel’s long-term issuer credit rating to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-’, citing strong earnings growth, robust cash flows, and continued deleveraging expected over the next 12–24 months.

The agency assigned a positive outlook, indicating that continued deleveraging and supportive leverage tolerance could lead to a further upgrade over the next two years.

S&P expects Bharti Airtel’s improving earnings amid rational industry competition to strengthen its financial flexibility, forecasting the company’s FFO-to-debt ratio to move toward 45% over the next 12–24 months. The leverage ratio measures a company's ability to cover its debt obligations with its funds from operations (FFO).

Earnings growth is expected to remain robust, driven primarily by its Indian operations, where S&P anticipates 2%–4% annual subscriber additions and 6%–8% ARPU (average revenue per user) growth, supported by upgrades to higher-priced plans and rising data usage.

Bharti Airtel raised mobile tariffs by 10%–21% during industry-wide hikes in July 2024, helping lift its ARPU to ₹256 in Q2 FY26, up 21% from the June 2024 quarter. The company has also been adding wireless subscribers, reaching 364 million as of September 2025, compared with 351 million a year earlier, partly benefiting from churn at Vodafone Idea due to network under-investment.

S&P expects Airtel’s Africa business to continue contributing around 20% of consolidated earnings through FY27, with performance supported by stable local currencies and sustained growth. Airtel Africa has delivered 8%–10% annual growth in customer base and ARPU (constant currency) over the past three years.

However, S&P cautioned that rising debt at Airtel’s immediate parent, Bharti Telecom, could weigh on the improvement in the telco’s creditworthiness. Debt at Bharti Telecom stood at about ₹40,000 crore as of September 30, 2025, accounting for more than 15% of Bharti Airtel’s adjusted debt, compared with just ₹1,000–2,000 crore in FY21 and FY22.

Despite the rise in dividend receipts from Bharti Airtel, debt at Bharti Telecom could continue to increase and will remain a monitoring point, the agency said.

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