Not going to take anything outside Bharti group, says Gopal Vittal

Gopal Vittal, who has been appointed vice chairman of Bharti Airtel, has said that he would not take up any position outside the group and would take on some responsibilities from chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal across the conglomerate, specifically driving synergy on digital procurement, talent, and network strategy.

“We believe this will add capacity to the group. I will also spend time scaling some of our incubation and growth areas of digital services, financial services, and data centers. I'll also provide broader oversight across our overseas operations,” he said in the earnings call following the second-quarter results on Tuesday.

“I want to clarify that I'm fully committed to the Bharti group and I have no intention of taking on anything outside the group,” he said. He would continue as vice-chair of GSMA, the global organisation representing over 700 telecom carriers across geographies, for an additional two years as a nominee of Airtel, which will enable him to bring latest global technological developments back to Airtel, Vittal said.

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Vittal, who has been Airtel's MD & CEO since 2012, was made vice-chairman effective immediately, in addition to his existing position as MD, under the succession plan that India’s No. 2 carrier unveiled on Monday. During his term, Airtel’s market capitalization rose to $100 billion. He will take on the role of executive vice-chairman from 1 January 2026.

Shashwat Sharma, chief operations officer since 2023, was appointed CEO-designate, responsible for the entire end-to-end consumer business. Sharma, who earlier led the consumer marketing business across all segments, will continue to report to Vittal, who continues to head Airtel Business. Vittal will mentor and groom Shashwat to take over as MD & CEO for the entire business from 1 January 2026.

The 14-month long transition period is also aimed at “bringing fresh crop of young leaders into key positions to run India operations”, Vittal said. From 1 April 2025, Amit Tripathi, currently director, marketing and customer experience, will be made director, market operations, leading all circles and distribution strategy.

DTH will be decoupled from the converged entertainment category to create connected homes category, which will include broadband and converged entertainment, and DTH. Siddharth Sharma, currently CEO of DTH, will be appointed director, marketing and CEO of connected homes, while Pushpinder Gujral, currently CEO of upper north, will be appointed CEO and director for DTH. Customer experience will be separated into a standalone function, which will be headed by Shivan Bhargava, who has been appointed as director, customer experience. The executives will report to Shashwat.

Goldman Sachs said in a report on Tuesday that the transition period would allow smooth transfer of roles and responsibilities. “We are encouraged by the following : (1) the new CEO-designate has been with Airtel for six years, and has already been a part of the senior leadership team; (2) there is a 14-month transition period, which we believe should allow for a smooth transfer of roles and responsibilities; (3) Mr. Vittal will remain at Bharti Airtel,” analysts at the bank said.

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“We do not expect this change to be very disruptive. This should be further supported by Bharti’s strong established credentials and our view that the peak of competitive intensity is behind us,” said analysts at Citi Research in a note seen by Mint.

Tariff hikes

Vittal, who was speaking at an investor call following the September quarter earnings, reiterated the need for tariffs to rise but did not mention the timing of the next tariff hike. Airtel, along with other private telecom operators, had raised tariffs by 10-21% in June this year, the third such hike since 2019. That increased the net profit for the quarter ended September to ₹3,593 crore, up 168% from a year earlier, on consolidated revenues at ₹41,473 crore, which were up 12%. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) was up 12% at ₹22,021 crore and Ebitda margins rose to 53.1% from 52.7% last year.

The operator added 26.2 million smartphone data users in the quarter and 0.8 million postpaid users, raising Arpu, a key metric of profitability, to ₹233, from ₹203 last year, and ₹211 in the June quarter. Vittal noted that the Arpu had to rise to ₹300 even as tariffs remained among the lowest in the world.

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Airtel’s newest offering, fixed wireless access (FWA) that provides fibre-like internet speeds to the home without the need for fibre optic cables, was being taken to 2,000 cities. FWA will be offered on standalone architecture December onwards, Vittal said. The cost of equipment for fixed wireless access (FWA) had become comparable to fibre-to-home routers, which would further help in accelerating the reach of FWA, he said.