Project Report on Bharti Airtel-Case

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Case Study on Financial and Strategic Analysis of Bharti Airtel

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Bharti Airtel
SWOT Analysis of Bharti Airtel

Strengths

Bharti Airtel
Company Performance
Financial Data
Revenues (FY06/07): INR185.2bn
Revenues (FY07/08): INR270.3bn
Revenues (FY08/09): INR369.6bn
Revenues (FY09/10): INR396.15bn
Revenues (June 2010): INR112.725bn
Revenues (September 2010): INR113.312bn
Revenues (December 2010): INR117.213bn
Net Profit (FY06/07): INR42.5bn
Net Profit (FY07/08): INR68.159bn
Net Profit (FY08/09): INR86.458bn
Net Profit (FY09/10): INR93.02bn
Net Profit (June 2010): INR19.048bn
Net Profit (September 2010): INR20.398bn
Net Profit (December 2010): INR18.282bn
Operational Indicators
No. of Fixed-Line Subscribers (2007): 2.178mn
No. of Fixed-Line Subscribers (2009): 2.989mn
No. of Fixed-Line Subscribers (March 2010): 3.067mn
No. of Fixed-Line Subscribers (June 2010): 3.153mn
No. of Fixed-Line Subscribers (September 2010): 3.216mn
No. of Fixed-Line Subscribers (December 2010): 3.257mn
No. of Broadband Subscribers (2008): 754,000
No. of Broadband Subscribers (2009): 970,000
No. of Broadband Subscribers (March 2010): 1.096mn
No. of Broadband Subscribers (June 2010): 1.179mn
No. of Broadband Subscribers (September 2010): 1.378mn
No. of Mobile Subscribers (2007): 55.20mn
No. of Mobile Subscribers (2008): 85.651mn
No. of Mobile Subscribers (2009): 118.864mn
No. of Mobile Subscribers (March 2010): 127.619mn
No. of Mobile Subscribers (June 2010): 136.620mn
No. of Mobile Subscribers (September 2010): 143.292mn
No. of Mobile Subscribers (December 2010): 157.485mn
Company Address
Bharti Airtel Limited (A Bharti Enterprise),
Qutab Ambience (at Qutab Minar),
Mehrauli Road,
Tel: +91 (11) 4166 6000
Web: www.airtel.in

With more than 150mn wireless subscribers (December 2010), Bharti is the country's leading mobile operator
Bharti offers a fully integrated telecoms service including mobile, fixed line and broadband and now targets the IPTV
and DTH markets with its plan to offer triple-play services
Bharti Airtel attracted 9.2mn net additions in Q410, its highest new subscriber count

Weaknesses

Fixed-line penetration across India still very low and broadband take-up remains sluggish

Fragmented wireless market makes it difficult for Bharti Airtel to be any more dominant

Decline in ARPU and non-voice revenues on the back of an increase in lower value prepaid custom
Opportunities

Although slow in doing so, the government is looking to introduce 3G services to India. Bharti will be hoping to lead this
new, potentially high-growth market

Network sharing agreement with Vodafone and capital expenditure plans should increase network coverage, in turn
leading to added subscriber growth potential

Ready to enter high-growth mobile market of Sri Lanka, as well as other exciting markets in the region including
Bangladesh and Nepal
Launched IPTV and triple-play services in January 2009

Threats

High number of prepaid customers impacts on ARPU and, therefore, profitability

Growth of CDMA operator Reliance and of fellow GSM operator Vodafone Essar could pose a threat to Bharti's
dominance
MNP could benefit smaller operators at Bharti's expense
Company Overview

Bharti Airtel is India's largest mobile operator with presence in all 23 of India's circles. The operator is divided into three business
units -- mobile services, broadband and telephone services, and enterprise services. The operator's enterprise unit is divided into
carriers and corporate business units. The carrier unit offers data and voice wholesale services, while the corporate business
units supply data and telecommunications needs for corporate and SMEs.

In June 2010, Bharti Airtel announced that it had finalised the acquisition of the African assets of Kuwait-based Zain Group, with
the deal valued at US$10.7bn. Under the terms of the deal, first announced in March 2010, Bharti will pay US$8.3bn upfront,
followed by a further cash payment of US$700mn after one year, while it will also take over approximately US$1.7bn of Zain's
debt. Bharti has taken over Zain's operations in 15 countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The Kuwaiti
company's subsidiaries in Morocco and Sudan were not included in the sale. Zain has also agreed to licence its name and related
trademarks to Bharti in all of the new countries for an interim period; the Airtel brand is expected to be introduced across its
news units by October 2010.

Following the completion of the deal, Bharti claims to have become the world's fifth largest mobile group, with full commercial
wireless operations in 19 countries -- the 15 newly acquired African units alongside India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the
Seychelles -- and a customer base of about 180mn. Bharti said it plans to expand aggressively in its new regions of operation and
has set a target of 100mn subscribers in Africa by 2012/13, while it expects the region to generate revenues of US$5bn and
EBITDA of US$2bn by that date.

Corporate Structure

Although Bharti Airtel is majority owned by the Bharti Group, SingTel owns a strategic 32.2% stake in it. Following Vodafone's
acquisition of a majority 67.0% stake in Hutchison Essar in early 2007, the UK-based operator sold a 4.99% stake to the Bharti
Group, although the group has given Singapore's Temasek Holdings, parent company of SingTel, the option to acquire the stake.

Recent Financial Results

In the quarter ended December 2010 Bharti Airtel's India and South Asia operations reported revenues of INR117.213bn, an
increase of 3.4% q-o-q and 19.9% y-o-y. This was largely due to the 6.4% q-o-q and 28.3% y-o-y increase in the operator's
subscriber base. The disproportionate increase could be attributed to strong competition and declines in ARPU levels. Bharti
Airtel's blended ARPU fell to INR198 in December 2010, down from INR202 in September 2010 and INR230 in December 2009.
Bharti Airtel's EBITDA held relatively stable at INR42.089bn but net profits fell by 10.4% to INR18.282bn, which is a reflection of
the ongoing price war.
Bharti Airtel's mobile revenues in India and South Asia were INR91.459bn in the quarter ended December 2010, which accounted
for 78% of total revenues in the region. Revenues from Telemedia services contributed 8% of the total, an equivalent of
INR9.068bn. Although Bharti Airtel added 41,000 new subscribers over the quarter, revenues declined from the previous quarter
due to lower ARPU rates, which fell to INR934 in December 2010 from INR954 in September 2010.

Passive Infrastructure Services' revenues increased slightly over the quarter to reach INR21.972bn in December 2010, which
accounted for 19% of Bharti Airtel's total. Bharti Airtel added 1,160 towers over the quarter to bring its consolidated tower base
to 77,695

In the quarter ended September 2010, Bharti Airtel announced revenues of INR113.312bn for its India and South Asia operations.
This was relatively stable compared to the previous quarter and was also reflected in the company's EBITDA. Bharti Airtel's
EBITDA for the quarter reached INR42.222bn, representing a decrease of 0.5%. However, an improvement in the operator's cash
profit from operations after derivative and exchange fluctuation as well as deferred tax expenses meant Bharti Airtel saw a 7.1%
increase in net profit to INR20.398bn, up from INR19.048bn in June 2010 but down from INR23.210 in 2009. Mobile services
revenue declined 0.2% q-o-q to INR88.045bn, despite a net addition of 6.672mn subscribers in September 2010.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel total Passive Infrastructure Services (includes Bharti Infratel and proportionate consolidation of 42%
stake in Indus Towers) reached INR21.161bn, an increase of 24% y-o-y from INR17.049bn. This was due to an increase of 5,117
towers to bring the operator's consolidated tower base to 76,535. Bharti Infratel accounted for 41.6% of the total.

Telemedia services revenue (broadband, IPTV and telephones) grew by 6.7% y-o-y to reach INR9.118bn in September 2010 due to
a net addition of 288,000 subscribers over the year. However, ARPU fell to INR954 from INR989, representing a decrease of 3.5%
y-o-y.

Mobile Services

Through its GSM 900 and 1800 networks, Bharti offers wireless services. The network covered 5,092 census towns and 440,023
non-census towns and villages across India, covering 84.3% of the country's population, as of June 2010. This is encouraging in
that there still remains plenty of opportunity for further growth, especially in rural India. Bharti hopes to cover 95% of India's
population by the end of the decade.
Bharti claims that it will be in a position to launch 3G services 'within a few months' of receiving a 3G licence. However, it is
understood that the operator will need to invest about US$1bn to upgrade to UMTS. It has already launched its SongCatcher next
generation service, which is the country's first mobile music service.
Bharti launched eight mobile feature handsets in September 2010 through its subsidiary Beetel Teletech. Bharti aims to become
one of India's top five vendors in the next three years. The handsets will feature functions mobile payments, dual-SIM capability
and the subscribers will receive free calls and SMS services due to a tie up with Indian social networking site Ibibo.

Bharti Airtel launched 3G services in one telecoms circle in January 2011 and plans to commence commercial services in the
remaining 12 by March 2011. The operator also aims to roll out the services in 1,500 cities across the country by end-March 2012.
The operator is also reportedly in talks with other licence holders to roll out its 3G services in the remaining 10 circles through
its roaming offerings.

Domestic Fixed Network Services

Bharti also provides broadband (DSL) and fixed telephony services in 95 cities; it aims to supply broadband and telephone
business wherever there is high enough revenue potential. Fixed-line telephony services include local, national and international
long-distance connectivity.

In January 2009, Bharti Airtel launched an IPTV service, Airtel Digital TV Interactive, based on Carrier Ethernet and MPEG-4
technology. In the process, Bharti also became a triple-play service provider, having launched a DTH service in October 2008.
Bharti Airtel previously announced plans to enter India's IPTV (with the help of UTStarcom) and DTH markets in October 2007.
By launching IPTV, Bharti has put itself in direct competition with BSNL and MTNL, with both state-owned operators having
already launched IPTV services in select cities, such as Pune and Delhi. Bharti's major rival, Reliance Communications, also has
targets for IPTV services.
The operator boosted its broadband speeds in September 2009, for customers of its IPTV service in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida.
Magic@home Freedom offers broadband speeds of 1Mbps with capacity of 1MB at a cost of INR1899 per month, while
Magic@home Turbo offers broadband speeds of 512Kbps, which doubles broadband speeds to 1Mbps at night and charges INR1499
per month.

International Operations

As well as growing its domestic market, Bharti has an international strategy, as illustrated by its launch of commercial 2G and 3G
mobile services in Sri Lanka, where it is set to become the South Asian country's fifth operator. The operator will invest
US$150mn towards its network roll-out, but will avoid some northern and eastern districts of the country for security reasons. It
is confident that it can make a mark in Sri Lanka, where penetration is about the 30% figure. Bharti Airtel aims to continue its
investment in the region and is hoping to launch networks in due course in Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Maldives, but it
has ruled out entering Pakistan.

Airtel is currently executing an agreement with Malaysia's Global Transit, Google, KDDI of Japan, Singapore's Pacnet and SingTel
to build a high bandwidth undersea fibre-optic cable linking Asia with the US. Through Airtel's CallHome service, the operator
already connects 2.5mn expats in the US back to India. Bharti also has an agreement with eight carriers -- Etisalat, France
Tlcom, Ogero (Lebanon), PTCL, STC, Telecom Egypt, TIS Sparkle of Italy and VSNL -- to build a fibre-optic submarine cable
stretching from India to France via the Middle East.

The operator launched global wholesale services in August 2009, providing international operators with access to its fibre
network, spanning 50 countries. It spent US$500mn on boosting cable capacity and PoPs. Its wholesale portfolio includes MPLS,
ethernet IP and IPLC services.
In September 2010, Bharti launched its Global Data portfolio in Thailand and Malaysia as part of its global expansion strategy and
to serve the growing bandwidth demands of customers in the region.
In November 2010, Bharti Airtel rebranded its operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa and the unveiling of the new
identity airtel, coincides with the group's 200mn subscriber milestone.

Strategy

A central element of Bharti Airtel's strategy involves the continuation of network investments, in order to ensure that it is able to
serve its rapidly expanding customer base. In support of this strategy, Bharti has established a major outsourcing relationship
with IBM, which gives IBM full control and ownership of Bharti's IT infrastructure and associated processes. The relationship with
IBM enables Bharti to focus its energies on growing, serving and retaining its customer base.

Another element of Bharti's strategy has been its drive to become a converged services provider, with the ability to cater for all
the communications needs of its customers. In August 2008, Manoj Kohli, joint managing director and CEO of Bharti Airtel,
described Bharti's 'three-screen strategy', by which it aims to give consumers a uniform and consistent experience. The threescreen strategy refers to the consumer accessing TV at home through Bharti's IPTV and DTH offerings, the mobile phone in the
car through the company's mobile telephone services, and content on the PCs through Airtel's broadband services. Kohli has also
indicated that, in the long term, Bharti is interested in the possibility of entering the digital cinema business (a fourth screen).
The operator is also looking beyond the telecoms sector, expanding its Global
Data portfolio in South East Asia.

Meanwhile, Bharti continues to invest in other emerging markets and sees this expansion as a way of supplementing its domestic
activities. Bharti has ambitious plans in neighbouring Sri Lanka and also states that it sees Africa as representing a huge
opportunity.

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