After telecom, Bharti Airtel's Indus Towers to set up EV charging infrastructure

Bharti Airtel's telecom infrastructure arm Indus Towers plans to foray into the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure sector.

India's leading telecom tower infrastructure provider says it is looking to pursue suitable business opportunities in the EV infra space, aligning with the government's emphasis on EV adoption and infrastructure augmentation. Indus Towers received the approval of its board of directors for the same. The company has already launched pilot EV charging stations in Gurugram and Bengaluru.

Indus Towers is well positioned to contribute to the EV charging infrastructure sector by leveraging its expertise in managing and providing space, power, and operations and maintenance (O&M) for seamless operation and efficiency, the company says in a press statement.

This is in line with the company’s plan to supplement its long-term growth through relevant adjacent business opportunities, the statement says.

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel currently holds over 50% stake in Indus Towers.

Currently, Tata Power is the biggest charge point operator in the country.

Indus Towers is India’s leading provider of telecom infrastructure, and it deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures, for various mobile operators. The company’s portfolio of 234,643 telecom towers makes it one of the largest tower infrastructure providers in the country with presence in all 22 telecom circles.

Net profit of Indus Towers rose 160% year-on-year to ₹4,003 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2024. Revenue of the company increased 4.8% to ₹7,547 crore in Q3 FY25. EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation stood at ₹6,997 crore, up 93%.

“We are pleased to see our ability to maintain a dominant share of our major customers’ rollouts reap dividends in the form of robust tower and colocation additions, reiterating our superior execution capabilities and customer centric approach. The strong additions along with significant collections of overdue from a major customer helped us record an excellent financial performance,” says Prachur Sah, Managing Director and CEO, Indus Towers.

“We expect the resumption of network expansion by a major customer coupled with the rollouts by other customers to act as strong levers of growth,” says Sah.

Earlier this week, credit rating agency Moody's changed Bharti Airtel's outlook to 'positive' from 'stable'. "The change in outlook to positive reflects a significant improvement in Bharti's financial profile and its steadily increasing market share, supported by structural changes in India's fast growing mobile sector. Easing competitive intensity and our expectations of a relatively supportive regulatory environment also contribute to the positive outlook," says Nidhi Dhruv, Moody's Ratings Vice President and Senior Credit Officer.