Bharti Airtel shares drop over 3% after Sunil Mittal entity sells stake worth ₹7,200 cr via block deal

Shares of Bharti Airtel declined nearly 3% in early trade on Wednesday amid a surge in volumes following a block deal by a promoter entity. Indian Continent Investment, a Sunil Mittal-led promoter group entity, was looking to sell around a 0.56% stake in Bharti Airtel for about ₹7,200 crore through a block deal, according to reports.

Weighed down by strong volumes, Bharti Airtel share price dropped as much as 2.8% to ₹2,100 on the BSE. The counter saw heavy trading, with 5.3 lakh shares changing hands compared with the two-week average of 1.84 lakh shares.

At the time of reporting, shares of Bharti Airtel were down 2.09% at ₹2,115.55, with a market capitalisation of ₹12.06 lakh crore. The telecom stock has delivered a positive return of 34% over the past year, while it has gained 14.5% in the past six months and nearly 2% over the past month.

Bharti Airtel shares touched their 52-week high of ₹2,174.70 on November 21, 2025, while the stock fell to its 52-week low of ₹1,537.45 on November 29, 2024.

The floor price for the block deal was fixed at ₹2,096.7 per share, a 2.96% discount to Tuesday's closing price of ₹2,160.75 on the BSE, the report said.

As per the latest shareholding pattern available on the BSE, promoters owned 50.27% stake in Bharti Airtel, led by Bharti Telecom with a 40.47% shareholding. Indian Continent Investment held 1.48% shares in the telco.

In August this year, Indian Continent Investment had sold 0.98% of its shareholding in the telecom major through a block deal valued at ₹11,227 crore.

Last week, S&P Global Ratings upgraded 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.

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.

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.

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