AIRTEL BOARD CLEARS RS. 32000 CRORE FUND-RAISE.

DATE- MARCH 01, 2019- TIMES OF INDIA- BUSINESS NEWS

The article mainly tries to cover the fact have that board of Bharti AIRTEL
has approved fund- raising plans of up to Rs.32000 crore through a mix of a
right issue and bonds. The move will arm the company with fire-power to take
on competition intensified by Reliance Jio and help cut the debt. Mega fund
raising plans outlined by Bharti Airtel determined after Vodafone and Aditya
Birla group which infuse over Rs.18000 crore into India’s largest telecom
operator Vodafone Idea through a rights issue. Bharti Airtel board of directors
have approved the fund raising of up to Rs.32000 crore through rights
issuance of up to Rs.25000 crore and perpetual bonds with equity credit up to
Rs. 7000 crore.

The article talks about Airtel’s future plans of capacity expansion for which
the company is anticipating big capital expenditure and is already working on
raising money to give competition to Jio.Bharti Airtel posted a 72% drop in
consolidated net income for three months ended December 2018 at about Rs.
86 crore, amid market turbulence triggered by cut-throat competition. The Q3
earning score card of telecom operators recently presented a picture of
contrasts. While rival Reliance Jio posted an overall 65% rise in net profit to
Rs. 831 crore on a year-on-year basis, Airtel’s loss from India operations stood
at Rs. 972 crore, compared to a net income of Rs. 373.5 crore in the year-ago
period. Airtel’s consolidated net debt at Rs. 1.06 lakh crore as compared to Rs.
1.13 lakh crore in the previous quarter, and sources said the fund raising
would primarily be used to retire debt.

The article gives one a superficial idea of how Airtel being an established
brand has very strategically planned to raise funds to expand and give
competition to other telecom companies primarily Jio. The fund raise would
help Airtel gain more customers and also keep the customers satisfied by
providing better and improved network and other services.

AIRTEL HAS A STRONG BALANCE SHEET:

GOLDMAN SACH DATE- AUGUST 23, 2019
ECONOMIC TIMES

According to Broking house Goldman Sachs, Bharti Airtel is staying strong

and growing and has a robust balance sheet, Airtel has a robust balance sheet,
and a "best-in-class" spectrum footprint position which favours Bharti Airtel
for future network roll-outs and market share gains. With declining capex
intensity and rising margins on stable revenue growth, we expect Bharti to be
FCF (Free Cash Flow) positive in financial year 2020-21, Goldman Sachs said
in a report. The report said the telecom operator has a strong wireless business
growth potential.

In words of the reporter "We forecast a 30 per cent EBITDA growth CAGR
for India wireless (46 per cent of FY19E revenue) in FY19-22E driven by
market share gains, customer upgrades/better customer monetization in data,
and tariff hikes. With a recovery in India wireless, steady growth in Africa,
and stable non-wireless businesses, we forecast Bharti Airtel to deliver an 8 to
18 per cent revenue/EBITDA CAGR in FY19-22E"

To conclude the article gives us information about the fact that company is
showing good growth and has a well forecasted future which is a great sign for
the investors and the shareholders according to the well renowned broker
house Goldman Sachs.
AIRTEL, VODA-IDEA OPTIC FIBRE JOINT
VENTURE ON HOLD DATE-AUGUST 24, 2019
ECONOMIC TIMES

This article revolves around the proposed optic fiber joint venture between
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea has possibly been put on the backburner,
given the divergent funds requirements of the two telecoms. While Vodafone
Idea needs to monetize its fiber network assets quickly to stave off immense
financial pressure, Airtel has reduced its debt to manageable levels.

A senior telecom executive briefed on the merger “Under severe financial

pressure with huge debt, Vodafone Idea needs to urgently monetize its fiber
assets,” Airtel has no such urgency.

Vodafone and Airtel recorded a net loss of Rs 4,873 crore and Rs 2,866 crore,
respectively, in the quarter ended June. While Vodafone Idea’s revenue fell
sequentially, Airtel’s grew.
It’s reported that the proposed merger of Vodafone Idea’s 156,000 route km of
optic fiber and Airtel’s 246,000 km would have created a network of over
400,000 route km, exceeding Reliance Jio Infocomm’s 300,000 km. The
combined optic fiber entity would be valued at Rs 35,000-40,000 crore.
AIRTEL PAYMENTS BANK REPORTS A LOSS OF RS 338
CRORE IN FISCAL 2019
DATE-AUGUST 19, 2019 ECONOMIC TMES

The news article gives us the information that Airtel Payments Bank has reported a loss
of Rs
338.8 crore before taxes in the financial year 2018-19, up 24% from the Rs
272.6 crore loss in the previous fiscal, according to filings with the Registrar
of Companies accessed from business intelligence platform Tofler.

Airtel Payments Bank is the banking entity of telecom major Airtel and offers
digital payments and savings services to customers. The company reported a
total income of Rs 254 crore in fiscal year 2019, against Rs 160 crore last
year, a jump of almost 59%. Airtel is one of the last remaining payment banks
in the country along with Paytm Payments Bank, India Post Payments Bank,
Fino Payments Bank and a few others. A couple of weeks back its rival Idea
closed its banking operations. Even India Post is understood to be looking for
a small finance bank licence. Recently, the State Bank of India said in a
research report that Payment Banks (PBs) as a business was facing stress on
both the asset and liability counts.

According to the report authored by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economist,

SBI. “On the asset side, PBs face a blanket ban on any type of lending. On the
liability side, too, they cannot accept deposits higher than Rs 1 lakh. Though
the business of PBs is free from credit risk and faces relatively lower market
risk, it is subject to operational and liquidity risk,”
AIRTEL RISES 6% POST Q1

RESULTS DATE- AUGUST 02,

2019 ECONOMIC TIMES

According to the Economic times article “Shares in Bharti Airtel surged 6 per
cent” in Friday's session after its India mobile services continued to show
signs of a recovery in the first quarter of the current fiscal with average
revenue per user moving up sequentially for the second straight three-month
period. Bharti Airtel’s quarterly revenue from local mobile services was also
higher at Rs 10,866.7 crore, up 2.2 per cent sequentially and 4 per cent on-
year, while its overall India revenue rose 0.7 per cent sequentially and nearly 3
per cent on-year to Rs 15,344.6 crore, which analysts said signals the steady
revival of Telco’s local mobile operations. Mobile services contributed around
71 per cent of Airtel’s overall India quarterly revenue. Thus, Reliance Jio
Infocom, which recently reported quarterly revenues of Rs 11,679 crore in the
April-June period, has emerged the country’s largest mobile carrier by the
parameter, pulling ahead of both Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

Vodafone Idea’s ARPU was further back at Rs 108. The Telco’s consolidated
revenue rose 5 per cent on year and 0.6 per cent on quarter, to Rs 20,737.9
crore, helped also by growth in India revenues. Bharti Airtel shares fell 4.10
per cent to Rs 323.95 at the close on BSE Thursday, a day when the
exchange’s benchmark index, Sensex, fell 462 points or 1.23 per cent. The
earnings were announced shortly after market hours.
AIRTEL FASTEST MOBILE BROADBAND NETWORK,
JIO NOW SLOWEST: OOKLA
DATE-AUGAST 24, 2019 ECONOMIC TIMES

According to the article “Ookla” a network speed testing company, has found
Airtel to be the fastest mobile broadband network, while Jio was the slowest in
July. Broadband speed measurement firm Ookla said it has found Bharti Airtel
to be the fastest mobile broadband network, while speed on Reliance Jio
network was the slowest in July. The report, compiled based on Speed test
Intelligence data collected by Ookla between August 2018 and July 2019,
shows mobile broadband speed on the Vodafone Idea network has gradually
improved.

The report states that Speed test results show that mobile download speeds in
India improved on average for all the top mobile operators over the period of
August 2018 - July 2019, with Airtel holding the title of fastest operator
throughout these 12 months.

However the report is in contrast to data published by telecom regulator Trai.

The data compiled by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India shows
Reliance Jio has consistently maintained lead throughout the year in mobile
broadband speed with more than double the speed of its nearest rival.
BHARTI AIRTEL TO INCREASE TARIFFS FROM DECEMBER,
2019

DATE- NOVEMBER 18, 2019 ECONOMIC TIMES

This article gives us light upon the information that telecom major, Bharti
Airtel, has decided to increase tariffs from December, 2019. The
announcement comes moments after Vodafone Idea, decided to increase its
tariffs from December 1.

The report said “We understand that TRAI is likely to initiate a consultation
for bringing rationality in pricing in the Indian mobile sector which has been
operating at prices that have been eroding the viability of the sector."
Highlighting the nature of the telecom sector, the brief read "Sector is highly
capital intensive with fast changing tech cycles that require continuing
investments. It is, therefore, extremely important that it remains viable to
support vision of Digital India. Accordingly, co will hike prices in from
December."

The article is concluded on the point that Airtel said its net loss was on
account of exceptional charge pertaining to the provisioning of Rs 28,450
crore towards the AGR dues, which included principal of Rs 6,164 crore,
interest of Rs 12,219 crore, penalty of Rs 3,760 crore, and interest on penalty
of Rs 6,307 crore.