Bharti Airtel Limited — Q1 FY25
Bharti Airtel delivered a consistent quarter with consolidated revenues of just over INR 38,500 crore and India EBITDA margins of 53.7%.
bullish
high
✓ Verified against BSE filing
Claim Ledger
Did management answer the analysts?
Every material analyst question, graded on whether management actually answered it — with the verbatim exchange and quantitative claims checked against filed numbers.
71%Questions answered1Evaded / deflected7Questions auditedContradictedNumbers vs filing
Answered
Medium priority
Why did SG&A and other costs increase sequentially?
Asked by Sanjesh Jain
Management gave specific reasons for cost increases.
Read the exchange
Question
First, on the cost side, the cost increase sequentially appears to be higher both on the SG&A side and the other cost side as well. Can you help us understand what led to a sudden, sharp improvement in the cost line item?
Soumen Ray, CFO
Well, in SG&A, there was a bit of one-off in the previous quarter, which has been a catch-up mostly. Also, with the broadband rollout, there was some one-time advertisement expenditure. These are the two primary reasons why SG&A is a little elevated.
Partial answer
Medium priority
What caused the working capital release of ₹445 crores?
Asked by Sanjesh Jain
Management gave general reasons but no detailed breakdown of the ₹445 crore release.
vague reasonsno specific breakdown
Read the exchange
Question
There is a significant release of working capital to the tune of ₹445 crores to be precise in this quarter. What led to that sudden release in the working capital?
Soumen Ray, CFO
Well, I think what led to this release is multiple levers being pushed, some collections being fast-tracked, and all of that. You can consider the current level to be reasonably a steady level of working capital.
Evasive
Medium priority
Is the current capex level representative for the full year?
Asked by Sanjesh Jain
Management avoided confirming whether the quarterly capex is representative.
refused to comment on quarterly representativenessdeferred to full year
Read the exchange
Question
And towards the capex, Soumen, this quarter was 16.6% of the revenue, just INR 370 crores. This should not be a representative capex for the full year, right?
Soumen Ray, CFO
See, quarterly, we would not like to say whether it is representative or not. But like it happened in our parent at a full year level, we should finally end with a capex which is lower than last year.
Answered
Medium priority
Why is net revenue/gross revenue declining and access charges rising?
Asked by Vivekanand Subbaraman, Ambit
Management explained the reason and advised to look at annualized trends.
Read the exchange
Question
When I look at the net revenue and divide it by gross revenue, I'm getting 79.2% this quarter versus ... 80.6% one year in the one year prior. So there has been some increase in access charges as a percentage of revenue. Could you help us understand what are the factors responsible for that?
Soumen Ray, CFO
Bharti Hexacom Limited is the only player currently who does not have a Pan India presence, and hence we have access charges. You should look at access charges on an annualized basis because there are multiple seasonalities...
Partial answer
Medium priority
What is the home market opportunity for Hexacom?
Asked by Vivekanand Subbaraman, Ambit
Management gave a rough estimate but lacked precise data.
no exact numberrough estimate given
Read the exchange
Question
As far as Airtel overall is concerned, Gopal outlined the home market opportunity of top 60 million homes, 20-25 million of whom are unconnected. What would the corresponding numbers be for Hexacom?
Soumen Ray, CFO
Well, Vivekanand, I would not have the numbers offhand with me to give you. But suffice to say, it should be lower than equal subset... I would say if it is 60 million, this number could be anywhere between 1-1.5 million in these two circles.
Answered
Medium priority
Will Hexacom focus on FWA for home broadband in its circles?
Asked by Kirtan Mehta
Management clearly explained the strategy of offering both wired and FWA under Airtel Wi-Fi.
Read the exchange
Question
Would we be more open to sort of explore the FWA route to tap the home segment within our two circles where probably the network providing network connectivity to the upper household would be difficult?
Soumen Ray, CFO
The way we are approaching it is we are saying Wi-Fi. When we lit up both wired connection as well as FWA, the feasibility goes up significantly. The pricing is same. The customer is actually agnostic...
Answered
Low priority
How many of the 1,300 home pass cities are in Hexacom's circles?
Asked by Kirtan Mehta
Management gave a specific number.
Read the exchange
Question
In terms of we mentioned around 1,300 cities where home passes would be available. So how many of those cities would be within our two circles?
Soumen Ray, CFO
We will be closer to about 100.
Answered
High priority
Why is net income down 24% YoY despite exceptionals?
Asked by Kirtan Mehta
Management pointed to specific cost increases.
Read the exchange
Question
We have mentioned about net income before exceptionals was INR 2.6 billion was around 24% YOY. Could you just remind us through what were the factors during the previous Q1, which is sort of showing this apparent decline?
Soumen Ray, CFO
I think it is primarily network cost. The 5G cost has come in. We have rolled out a lot many more new sites. ... a very, very sharp increase in network operating cost from about INR 348 crores to INR 467 crores.
Quantitative claims vs filed numbers
| Claim | Management said | Filing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net income before exceptionals INR 2.6 billion, down 24% YoY | ₹260 cr | ₹4,718 cr | Understated vs filing |
Filed figures sourced from Screener.in. Claims within a small tolerance of the filing are marked “matches filing”.