TABLE OF CONTENTS
Company Overview..............................................................................................3
Key Facts...............................................................................................................3
Business Description...........................................................................................4
History...................................................................................................................6
Key Employees...................................................................................................11
Key Employee Biographies................................................................................12
Major Products and Services............................................................................16
Revenue Analysis...............................................................................................17
SWOT Analysis...................................................................................................19
Top Competitors.................................................................................................25
Company View.....................................................................................................26
Locations and Subsidiaries...............................................................................28
Page 2
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Bharti Airtel Limited (Bharti Airtel or "the company") is one of the leading global telecommunications
companies, offering second generation (2G,) third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G)
wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed digital subscriber line (DSL)
broadband, internet protocol television (IPTV), direct-to-home (DTH), enterprise services including
national and international long distance services to carriers. The company operates in 20 countries
across Asia and Africa. It is headquartered in New Delhi, India and employed approximately 14,645
people as of March 31, 2014.
The company recorded revenues of INR857,461 million ($14,233.9 million) during the financial year
ended March 2014 (FY2014), an increase of 11.5% over FY2013.The operating profit of the company
was INR121,274 million ($2,013.1 million) in FY2014, an increase of 43.6% over FY2013. The net
profit of the company was INR27,727 million ($460.3 million) in FY2014, an increase of 21.8% over
FY2013.
KEY FACTS
Head Office
Phone
91 11 4666 6100
Fax
91 11 4666 6411
Web Address
http://www.airtel.in
March
Employees
14,645
Bombay Stock
Exchange Ticker
532454
National Stock
Exchange Ticker
BHARTIARTL
Page 3
BUSINESS DESCRIPTION
Bharti Airtel Limited (Bharti Airtel or "the company") is a provider of telecommunications services
with presence in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and 17 countries in the African continent.The company
offers mobile, voice and data solutions using 2G, 3G and 4G technologies; an integrated suite of
telecom solutions; and long-distance connectivity in India, Africa and rest of the world. The company
also offers digital TV and IPTV services in India. All of the services are offered under the Airtel brand.
The company had a customer base of 295.9 million at the end of March 2014.
Bharti Airtel generates revenues through seven business segments: Mobile Services India, Mobile
Services Africa, Airtel Business, Telemedia Services, Digital TV services, Tower Infrastructure
Services, Mobile Services South Asia and others.
Mobile Services India segment includes voice and data telecom services provided through wireless
technology, including 2G, 3G and 4G in India. This includes the captive national long distance
networks which primarily provide connectivity to the mobile services business in India. In addition,
the company offers intra city fibre networks and mobile commerce services. At the end of FY2014,
the company had a customer base of 205.5 million global systems for mobile communications (GSM)
customers in India. The company had 58.1 million mobile internet customers, which includes 11
million 3G data service customers. In addition, Bharti Airtel operated 138,755 sites in India of which
31,301 were 3G sites.
Mobile Services Africa segment offers voice and data telecom services in the African Continent. The
company has businesses in 17 countries in Africa. In FY2014, Bharti Airtel had a subscriber base
of 69.4 million in Africa.The company had 22.3 million data customers and 3.5 million active customers
for its Airtel money service, and transacted nearly $700 million every month.
Airtel Business segment offers information and communications technology (ICT) solutions in India.
These solutions include voice, data, video, network integration, data center services, managed
services, enterprise mobility applications and digital media. Global Business, the international arm
of this segment offers an integrated suite of global and local connectivity solutions across voice and
data. Global Business also offers value added services (VAS) solutions like international toll free
services (ITFS), signalling hubs, messaging along with managed services and satellite
communications (Satcom) solutions.
Tower Infrastructure Services segment include setting up, operating and maintaining wireless
communication towers in India. These services are offered through its subsidiary Bharti Infratel,
which deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communications structures in 11 circles of
India and also holds 42% share in Indus Towers (a joint venture between Bharti Infratel, Vodafone
and Idea Cellular). Bharti Infratel had 35,905 towers in 11 telecommunication circles at the end of
FY2014. Bharti Infratel's towers, including installations of its 42% interest in Indus, comprised of
83,368 towers in India, as of March 31, 2014.
Page 4
Telemedia Services include voice and data communications based on fixed network and broadband
technology.The company provides fixed-telephone, broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) services
for homes as well as enterprises across 87 pan-India cities. It had 3.4 million customers as of March
31, 2014 of which 1.5 million subscribed to broadband/internet services. The product portfolio of the
segment includes high-speed broadband rising upto 100 Mbps for home segment as well as local,
national and international long-distance voice connectivity. For the enterprises, the segment offers
fixed-line voice (PRIs), multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), mobile, data and other connectivity
solutions; collaborative solutions including audio, video and web conferencing; and cloud solutions.
Digital TV services encompass the company's digital broadcasting services provided under the
direct-to-home (DTH) platform. The company served a customer base of nine million on its DTH
platform. Bharti Airtel currently offers a total of 400 channels and services, including 19 high-definition
(HD) channels, six games and three interactive services. In addition, the company added 25 vernacular
channels across languages such as Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, and Oriya, among others.
The companys Mobile Services South Asia segment offers voice and data telecom services provided
through wireless technology (2G/3G) in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. At the end of FY2014, the
company had 8.6 million mobile customers in South Asia and 6,814 sites on network, of which 1,986
were 3G sites.
Bharti Airtels others segment includes administrative and support services provided to other
segments.
Page 5
HISTORY
Bharti Airtel was established as Bharti Tele-Ventures (BTV) in 1995. The company started operations
in 1996.
In 2001, BTV entered into licenses for four fixed-line circles in addition to existing operations in
Madhya Pradesh. In the following year, the company went for an initial public offering of its shares.
During 2004, the company delisted its shares from the Delhi Stock Exchange, while its shares
continued to trade on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange. In the following
year, Vodafone acquired a 10% stake in BTV for around $1.5 billion. In 2006, BTV's name was
changed to Bharti Airtel Limited (Bharti Airtel or "the company").
In 2007, Bharti Infratel, a subsidiary of the company, in partnership with Vodafone Essar and Idea
Cellular formed Indus Towers, an independent tower company to provide passive infrastructure
services in India. In the same year, Bharti Airtel received license to provide telecom services in Sri
Lanka. The company also won facility based operator license in Singapore to operate international
carrier facilities from Singapore.
Bharti Airtel entered into two fiber-optic submarine cable agreements including one along with eight
companies of the global telecommunications industry to build a high-capacity fiber-optic submarine
cable that stretches from India to France through the Middle East; and another one along with five
international companies to build a high-bandwidth fiber-optic submarine cable linking Asia and the
US, in 2008. Subsequently, Guernsey Airtel, a subsidiary of the Bharti Enterprise, launched its mobile
services in Guernsey, Channel Islands offering products and services under the Airtel-Vodafone
brand. Later in the same year, Bharti Airtel entered into an exploratory discussion with MTN Group
of South Africa on the possibility of combining the two emerging market telecom companies. The
discussion did not result in a deal. Also in 2008, Bharti Airtel launched its virtual calling card service,
Airtel CallHome, to enter the UK market. The company also launched direct-to-home (DTH) TV
services in India.
In 2009, the company introduced its triple-play service by launching Airtel digital TV interactive, an
internet protocol (IP) TV and offered that service along with voice and broadband service. In the
same year, Bharti Airtel launched the world's first Windows based online desktop-powered by
Microsoft and Nivio. Subsequently, Australia Japan Cable and Bharti Airtel signed a partnership
agreement to interconnect their current and future networks in Guam. This agreement allowed both
parties to offer services from a number of locations including Singapore and the US West Coast to
Australia. Bharti Airtel and Alcatel-Lucent formed a joint venture to manage Bharti Airtel's pan-India
broadband and telephone services and help its transition to next generation networks, in 2009. In
the same year, the company entered the cloud computing market by launching Airtel Net PC, a
low-cost online computer for its broadband customers. Subsequently, Bharti Airtel created a new
terrestrial cable network to Bhutan. As part of this initiative, Bharti Airtel signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with the Royal Government of Bhutan to extend fiber connectivity. Also, in the
Page 6
same year, the company launched a corporate mailing solution for small and medium size enterprises
(SMEs), Airtel Hosted Mail. It also introduced its global wholesale service portfolio with a network
to reach 50 countries across the continents of Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia.
During 2009, Bharti Airtel and Cisco entered into a strategic business alliance to provide a set of
products and services including managed data services, hosted unified communications, connected
branch services and Cisco TelePresence. The company launched its Ethernet services in more than
25 global cities across Asia, Europe, North America and Australia.
In 2010, the company entered into an agreement to acquire 70% stake in Warid Telecom, a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Dhabi Group in Bangladesh offering mobile services. In the same year,
Bharti Airtel announced strategic organizational changes by creating a new International Business
Group that would be responsible for expanding the company's operations outside India and South
Asia. In the same year, Bharti Airtel launched India's first mobile app store, Airtel App Central, which
included 1,250 applications across 25 categories for business, games, books, social networking and
other needs. During 2010, the company entered the media and entertainment market by launching
Airtel Digital Media Business. Bharti Airtel and Ericsson expanded their strategic partnership with a
$1.3 billion network expansion contract. Bharti Airtel, along with its partners, launched the Unity
cable system, a 9,620 kilometer submarine cable system linking Japan and the West Coast of the
US. The company won 3G spectrum in 13 circles for INR122,954.6 million ($2,595.6 million) in an
auction held by the Indian government. Bharti Airtel formed a strategic partnership with Novatium,
a provider of computing services, to expand its broadband market in India, in 2010. In the same
year, Bharti Airtel formed a partnership with Encyclopaedia Britannica to offer a two year free
subscription to Britannica online for its broadband users. In the same year, the company acquired
Zain Group's (Mobile Telecommunications Company) mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa
for an enterprise valuation of $10.7 billion. Subsequently, Bharti Airtel formed a strategic partnership
with VMware and launched virtualization services based on VMware vSphere platform.
During 2010, a consortium of Bharti Airtel, Cisco, and Servion launched India's first 'customizable'
hosted contact center services. Bharti Airtel began offering the full mobile site of Facebook, a popular
social networking service, free of charge for its customers across India. Nokia and Bharti Airtel
partnered to launch Ovi Life Tools service targeted at providing Bharti Airtel's mobile customers with
access to relevant content on agriculture, education and entertainment. Bharti Airtel together with
other global telcos launched the EASSy cable system that connects Mtunzini in South Africa to Port
Sudan (in Sudan) with landing points in nine countries. Also in 2010, the company strengthened its
global data portfolio with the launch of its services in Thailand and Malaysia which included IPL,
managed MPLS and Ethernet for customers in the region. The company selected Ericsson India,
Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies as network partners to launch 3G services in
India. Bharti Airtel also signed an agreement with Ericsson and Huawei to deploy network across
Bangladesh. Bharti Airtel unveiled a new identity, a shared worldwide vision across its operations
in 19 countries in Asia and Africa, in 2010. The year witnessed the company cross the milestone of
200 million customers. In the same year, the company launched IPTV services in Bangalore, India.
Subsequently, Bharti Airtel, in association with China Telecom, commenced a direct underground
terrestrial link between India and China that offers network and connectivity to customers transiting
India or China to reach key global destinations.
Page 7
In 2011, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel entered into a joint venture agreement to offer banking
services. In the same year, Bharti Airtel launched its 3G services in Karnataka, its largest circle by
revenue market share in India. Subsequently, the company launched 3G services in the cities of
Chennai and Coimbatore. In the same year, Bharti Airtel launched Airtel Money, India's first mobile
wallet service by a telecom operator. Airtel digital TV, the DTH service from Bharti Airtel and Sony
India partnered to expand the flat panel TV market, in 2011. In the same year, the company partnered
with Savvis, a provider of cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprises, to offer managed
services to enterprises operating in or expanding into India. Bharti Airtel launched its 3G services
in Jaipur and the national capital region spanning Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Noida. During
2011, the company launched ''airtel broadband TV', a service which enables the customers to watch
live TV on their computers or laptops. Bharti Airtel launched 3G services in the city of Hyderabad,
India. Airtel digital TV added two new interactive services - iDarshan and iGoodlife. Bharti Airtel
launched airtel Movies, an on-demand online movie viewing service. In the same year, Airtel digital
TV launched iFasal, an interactive service in Hindi language. In 2011, the company launched its
international video calling services. In the same year, Airtel digital TV entered into a partnership with
Viacom 18-Colors to launch its first subscription service offering 24|7 movie and video content. Later
in the year, Airtel digital TV expanded its offerings through the addition of 41 channels across a
cross section of genres and nine languages. In the same year, the company introduced India's first
free mobile access to Twitter for a limited period.
Bharti Airtel selected Infosys as its technology partner for 'airtel money' in 2012. Under this partnership,
Infosys WalletEdgeTM - the mobile commerce platform will enable the mobile wallet service to
support cashless payments and settlement needs of diverse customer segments. In the same year,
the company selected Nokia Siemens Networks to build and operate its time division duplex long
term evolution (TD-LTE) network in Maharashtra. In the same year, the company launched its 4G
services in Bengaluru, India following the launch in Kolkata, India. During 2012, Bharti Airtel
strategically forayed into the mobile advertising (m-Advertising) segment. With this, the company
will equip advertisers to connect with their potential customers in a targeted and personalized fashion
via their mobile phones. Bharti Airtel, through its wholly owned subsidiary airtel mCommerce Services,
and Axis Bank entered into a partnership for extending banking and payment services to India's
unbanked population through the mobile platform. The company launched its Cloud Enablement
Platform (CLEP) based on the HP Aggregation Platform for Software-as-a- Service (AP4SaaS). This
will enable Bharti Airtel to offer hosted SaaS and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) applications to
the small and large enterprises on a pay-as-you-go model. In 2012, the company entered into an
agreement with Microsoft to deliver Microsoft's cloud based Office 365 business productivity solutions
to small and medium businesses by provisioning the service through its cloud platform. Bharti Airtel
launched SmartDrive, a voice based real time navigation service, in the same year. Subsequently,
the company rolled out Maharashtra, Insia's first 4G service in Pune. Bharti Airtel launched a new
green data center in Mumbai, India.
In 2013, the company launched Airtel Dynamic Mobile Exchange (DME) for corporates. The solution
allows the workforce to access enterprise data from anywhere on a device of their choice. In the
same year, the company launched 4G services in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula. Subsequently,
Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries and a provider of
broadband wireless access spectrum, signed an indefeasible right to use (IRU) agreement, under
which the company will provide Reliance Jio data capacity on its i2i submarine cable, a cable wholly
Page 8
owned by the company and connects India to Singapore. During the same year, the company entered
into a definitive agreement with the Warid, an Abu Dhabi-based mobile telecommunication investment
firm, to fully acquire Warid Telecom Uganda. With this, the company will further consolidate its
position as the second largest mobile operator in Uganda. The company issued 199.9 million shares,
representing 5% stake, to Qatar Foundation Endowment, a global investor, for a worth of $1.3 billion.
This will strengthen the company's capital structure and also allows the company to gain exposure
to strong investor base in Middle East. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm announced a
comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement under which they will share infrastructure
created by both parties. This will include optic fiber network; submarine cable networks; and towers
and internet broadband services among others.
In February 2014, Bharti Airtel launched first 4G on mobile in Bengaluru, India on Apple iPhone 5S
or 5C.
In April 2014, the company crossed a milestone of 100 Company-Owned-Company-Operated (COCO)
Airtel retail outlets and expanded its retail footprint to 35 cities and towns across 14 states in India.
In the following month, the company launched 3G intra city roaming (ICR) services in
Chandigarh-Tricity, Ludhiana, Jagraon, Malerkotla, Nabha and Nawanshaha and 4G services in
Jalandhar, Punjab, India. In May 2014, Airtel digital TV launched Disney Family Movies, an English
subscription video on demand (SVOD) service.
In June 2014, the company launched 4G on mobile in Kolkata, India. In the following month, Bharti
Airtel launched 4G services in Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara and Kapurthala; and Patiala in Punjab;
and Nagpur, and Nashik in Maharashtra; India.
Airtel Digital TV entered into a partnership with Samsung and launched Integrated Digital TV (iDTV),
in October 2014. As part of this, Samsungs range of SmartDirect TVs will be equipped with an
in-built Airtel digital TV Smart Card.
Bharti Airtel launched One Touch Internet, a wireless application protocol (WAP), in November 2014,
for millions of first-time internet users in India. In the same month, Mi India launched Redmi Note
4G in partnership with Bharti Airtel. As part of the partnership, Redmi Note 4G will retail at select
Airtel stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. In the following month,
the company launched 3G services in Odisha, India.
In March 2015, Bharti Airtel acquired 111.6 MHz of prime spectrum across 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and
2100 MHz bands for a total consideration of INR291300 million ($4,835.6 million). The companys
spectrum acquisition strategy is expected to enhance its leadership position in the data segment in
India. In the same month, the company strategically collaborated with China Mobile, to work towards
the growth of LTE ecosystem and evolving mobile technology standards. The company also entered
into network equipment sourcing agreements with ZTE and Huawei. During the month, the company
launched 3G services in Jammu, India and 4G services in Bhatinda, India. Bharti Airtel joined AWS
Partner Network (APN) to offer private network solutions for enterprise customers using Amazon
Web Services (AWS).
Page 9
Bharti Airtel launched Airtel Zero, an open marketing platform that enables customers to access
mobile applications at zero data charges, in April 2015. In the following month, the company received
financing commitments of up to $2.5 billion from China Development Bank and Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China. These financings compliment the companys strong collaboration with
Chinese partners. Subsequently, the company launched 4G trials for its existing customers in
Chennai, India.
In July 2015, Bharti Airtel launched 4G services on dongles, wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) customer premise
equipment (CPEs), mobile Wi Fi (Mi-Fi) and Wi-Fi dongles in Rohtak, India. In the same month,
Bharti Airtel launched 4G trials, in Hubli and Dharwad in Karnataka, India.
Page 10
KEY EMPLOYEES
Name
Job Title
Board
Gopal Vittal
Executive Board
42461019 INR
Executive Board
238800623 INR
Shishir Priyadarshi
Director
Bernardus Verwaayen
Director
7049667 INR
Director
3461556 INR
Craig Ehrlich
Director
8652546 INR
Director
286301 INR
Manish Kejriwal
Director
4960294 INR
Director
7784793 INR
Director
2710958 INR
1511570 INR
Director
3461556 INR
V.K. Viswanathan
Director
1220274 INR
Srinivasan Gopalan
Senior Management
Ajay Chitkara
B. Srikanth
Senior Management
Moti Gyamlani
Senior Management
Ajai Puri
Senior Management
Manish Prakash
Senior Management
Abhay Savargaonkar
Senior Management
Nilanjan Roy
Senior Management
Raghunath Mandava
Senior Management
Shashi Arora
Senior Management
Sameer Chugh
Senior Management
Harmeen Mehta
Senior Management
Compensation
Page 11
Shishir Priyadarshi
Board: Non Executive Board
Job Title: Director
Mr. Priyadarshi serves as a Director at Bharti Airtel. He serves as one of the Directors at World
Trade Organisation (WTO) and as the Head of the Development division. Mr. Priyadarshi worked
for the Government of India for 20 years and served as the Senior Indian Administrative Service
Officer in the state of Uttar Pradesh and at the federal level in New Delhi, including in the office of
the Cabinet Secretary.
Bernardus Verwaayen
Page 12
Craig Ehrlich
Board: Non Executive Board
Job Title: Director
Mr. Ehrlich is a Director at Bharti Airtel. He serves as the Chairman at Carmel Ventures Asia. Mr.
Ehrlich serves as the Vice Chairman at ISM and is the Board Member at Philweb. Previously, he
served as the Chairman at kbro, which was sold in 2010. Mr. Ehrlich is also the Chairman at Novare
Technologies. He joined Hutchison Cablevision as the Managing Director in 1987. After four years
at Hutchison Whampoa, Mr. Ehrlich became the Group Operations Director at Hutchison
Telecommunications. In 1993, he left the Hutchison group and established companies involved in
the introduction of cable television and paging services and also started Hong Kong mobile operator,
SUNDAY Communications in 1996. Mr. Ehrlich serves as a Member at UCLA/Peking University
Joint Research institute Advisory Committee and as the Founding Chairman of the Centre for Global
Management at the UCLA Anderson School.
Page 13
Mr. Mittal serves as a Director at Bharti Airtel. Previously, he served as the Government of India in
various capacities, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer. Mr. Mittal served as the
Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and as an Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce.
He also served as the Chief Negotiator of India for WTO negotiation.
Manish Kejriwal
Board: Non Executive Board
Job Title: Director
Mr. Kejriwal is a Director at Bharti Airtel. He serves as the Managing Partner at Kedaara Capital. In
2003, Mr. Kejriwal founded the Indian office of Temasek Holdings where he headed all its investments
and other activities till 2011. During this time, he was the Senior Managing Director and also held
multiple responsibilities in Temasek Singapore. Prior to joining Temasek Holdings, Mr. Kejriwal was
a Partner at McKinsey. Prior to that, he worked at the World Bank in Washington. He currently serves
on the Board of Directors at Bajaj Holdings & Investment and Bajaj Auto.
Page 14
V.K. Viswanathan
Board: Non Executive Board
Job Title: Director
Mr.Viswanathan serves as a Director at Bharti Airtel. He serves as the Chairman at Bosch. Previously,
Mr. Viswanathan served as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, the President and
the Country Head at Bosch Group in India from 2008 to 2012. He also held various other positions
at Bosch, including the President of Diesel Systems at Robert Bosch, Stuttgart, Germany from 1998
to 2000. Prior to that, Mr. Viswanathan held various leadership positions at Hindustan Unilever and
Unilever.
Page 15
Page 16
REVENUE ANALYSIS
Overview
The company recorded revenues of INR857,461 million ($14,233.9 million) during the financial year
ended March 2014 (FY2014), an increase of 11.5% over FY2013. In FY2014, India, the company's
largest geographic market, accounted for 65.3% of the total revenues.
Bharti Airtel generates revenues through seven business segments: Mobile Services India (52.1%
of the total revenues in FY2014), Mobile Services Africa (31.4%), Airtel Business (5.6%), Telemedia
Services (4.3%), Digital TV services (2.4%), Tower Infrastructure Services (2.2%) and Mobile Services
South Asia (2%). In addition, the company generated revenues from the others segment which does
not account for significant part of the revenues.
Revenues by segment*
In FY2014, the Mobile Services India segment recorded revenues of INR446,896 million ($7,418.5
million), an increase of 9.6% over FY2013.
The Mobile Services Africa segment recorded revenues of INR269,287 million ($4,470.2 million) in
FY2014, an increase of 13.3% over FY2013.
The Airtel Business segment recorded revenues of INR48,025 million ($797.2 million) in FY2014,
an increase of 19.3% over FY2013.
The Telemedia Services segment recorded revenues of INR36,492 million ($605.8 million) in FY2014,
an increase of 6.3% over FY2013.
The Digital TV services segment recorded revenues of INR20,709 million ($343.8 million) in FY2014,
an increase of 27.5% over FY2013.
The Tower Infrastructure Services segment recorded revenues of INR19,105 million ($317.1 million)
in FY2014, a decrease of 7.6% compared to FY2013.
The Mobile Services South Asia segment recorded revenues of INR16,945 million ($281.3 million)
in FY2014, an increase of 40.9% over FY2013.
*The company generated revenues from others segment which does not form a significant part of
total revenues. Hence, total revenues do not match the segmental revenues.
Revenues by geography
Page 17
India, Bharti Airtel's largest geographic market, accounted for 65.3% of the total revenues in FY2014.
Revenues from India reached INR559,696 million ($9,291 million) in FY2014, an increase of 9.8%
over FY2013.
Africa accounted for 31.4% of the total revenues in FY2014. Revenues from Africa reached
INR269,287 million ($4,470.2 million) in FY2014, an increase of 13.3% over FY2013.
Rest of the world accounted for 3.3% of the total revenues in FY2014. Revenues from rest of the
world reached INR28,478 million ($472.7 million) in FY2014, an increase of 31% over FY2013.
Page 18
SWOT ANALYSIS
Bharti Airtel Limited (Bharti Airtel or "the company") is one of the leading global telecommunications
companies, offering second generation (2G) third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) wireless
services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband,
internet protocol television (IPTV), direct-to-home (DTH), enterprise services including national and
international long distance services to carriers.The company has established a strong market position
in some of the most resilient economies in the world and is therefore equipped with strong growth
prospects. However, competitive pressures may adversely impact Bharti Airtel's margins.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Intense competition
Alternate technologies may impact the
company's business
Strengths
Page 19
customer base provides a substantial base for the consumption of the company's products and
services.
Presence in emerging markets
Bharti Airtel operates in the emerging markets of Asia and Africa which enables it to drive revenue
growth and leverage opportunities offered by the growing markets. According to IMF, the gross
domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at 7.5% during 2015-16 and the Sub-Saharan region
is expected to grow at 4.5% in 2015 and 5.1% in 2016. In addition, Bangladesh is expected to grow
at 6.3% in 2015 and 6.8% in 2016; and Sri Lanka at 6.5% during 2015-16. The growth in Africa is
being driven by investments in education, employment, healthcare and critical infrastructure. In
addition, the telecommunications sector contributes significantly for the economic growth in Africa.
Further, Bangladesh has its focus on increasing foreign investments, improve infrastructure and
promote all-round socio-economic development.
The companys strong presence in the emerging markets of Asia-Pacific and Africa enabled Bharti
Airtel to drive revenue growth. It also enabled the company to focus on the emerging markets of
mobile money and e-commerce in these regions which offer enormous growth opportunities.
Integrated services portfolio
Bharti Airtel offers integrated services. For retail customers, the company offers fixed line voice,
broadband, mobile services, mobile data, digital TV and several other value added services including
mobile payments. For the enterprise customers, the Airtel Business offers wide portfolio of services
that include voice, data, network integration, data center and managed services, enterprise mobile
applications and digital media. Further, Bharti Airtel offers tower infrastructure services to the
telecommunications providers. Ability to provide integrated services is a competitive advantage.
Specifically, the average revenue per user will be incremental as the company's integrated services
continue to penetrate the customer base.
Robust network infrastructure
The company has robust network infrastructure with broad coverage capability. The company caters
to a customer base of 295.9 million in India and Africa through its network. Bharti Airtel has made
significant investments in growth drivers, such as spectrum and licenses, 3G and 4G networks in
India, its presence in South Asia and a large network across Africa. During FY2014, the company
continued its network rollout and enhanced its total number of sites to 17,792 in Africa. This enabled
it to consolidate its market position in Nigeria to become the second largest telecommunications
provider in the region. Further in India, the company had 138,755 sites of which 31,301 were 3G
sites at the end of FY2014. Similarly, in South Asia the company had 6,814 sites on network in
FY2014, as compared to 6,474 sites in FY2013.
Furthermore, during FY2014, the company won the auction for spectrum in the 900 MHz and the
1,800 MHz bands, which helped renew some of its early licenses in India. In addition, Bharti Airtel
acquired Qualcomms 4G licenses in four circles in India. Also during March 2015, Bharti Airtel
Page 20
acquired 111.6 MHz of prime spectrum across 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands for a total
consideration of INR291,300 million ($4,835.6 million). These acquisitions align with the companys
strategy of building a robust network for the future and enhancing its leadership position in the fast
growing data segment.
The company's robust infrastructure coupled with continuous focus on enhancing network capabilities
enables it to effectively serve its customer base. Its spectrum acquisitions would enable to strengthen
its leadership position in the data markets and drive strong topline growth.
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Page 21
the end of 2014. 4G traffic is expected to grow 160-fold from 2014 to 2019, at a CAGR of 176%.
Similar growth is expected in Africa.
The company has been investing in network transformation in the recent times, where it started
deploying 3G services where it launched in 14 countries. Further the company is focused on 2G
network quality. Bharti Airtel is also aggressively driving device penetration, including tablets,
smartphones and dongles to ensure that its customers have access to the company's 3G data
services. In order to ensure the delivery of devices to its customers, the company also partnered
with major device manufacturers. Further, the company was the first operator to launch 4G services
in four cities in India. Also, the company is investing to roll out the long term evolution (LTE) networks
in Africa, including Kenya, Rwanda and Gabon. Further, in FY2014, the company obtained 3G and
4G licenses in Chad and Gabon; 3G licenses in Madagascar and 4G license in Seychelles, Africa.
This enabled Bharti Airtel to expand its footprint in the African region. The company also expanded
its 4G footprint in Chennai and Punjab in India. Also in March 2015, Bharti Airtel acquired 111.6
MHz of prime spectrum across 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands for a total consideration
of INR291,300 million ($4,835.6 million). The companys spectrum acquisition strategy is expected
to enhance its leadership position in the data segment in India.
The company's investments in the newer technologies including 3G, 4G and LTE will allow it to cater
to the increasing data consumption. Further all these newer technologies will enable the company
to increase ARPUs.
Strong growth in the mobile money market
Mobile money has been causing a significant transformation in how banked and previously unbanked
people globally are conducting their financial activities. These services play a central role in extending
the reach of formal financial services to the unbanked and financially underserved populations in
several economies. Also, the use of mobile handsets to make payments has grown in the recent
years. Paying by smartphone or tablet is the most dynamic trend in the payment arena. The trend
is expected to continue in the coming years, as adoption of mobile technologies is expected to
increase in coming years. According to industry estimates, the global mobile money market is
expected to grow from $12.3 billion in 2014 to $78 billion in 2019, representing a CAGR of 44.6%
during 2014-19. Asia-Pacific and African regions are expected to follow the similar growth trend.
The company through its Airtel Money service is catering to the growing adoption of the mobile
money services. The Airtel Money service is offered in India and in 17 countries in Africa. Further,
at the end of FY2014, the company had 3.5 million active mobile money customers in Africa, with
transactions ranging around $700 million per month. In India, Airtel Money tied up with the Indian
Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation to offer railway bookings. The company also partnered
with National Payments Corporation of India to offer mobile-based availability of money transfer to
customers.
Bharti Airtels strong focus on enhancing its presence in mobile money market and the increasing
adoption among the users offer ample opportunities for the company to generate additional revenues
in the coming years.
Page 22
Threats
Intense competition
The competition is intense in the Indian market with seven national players. This is too high compared
to global standards. Additionally, the Indian customers are highly price sensitive and consequently
the telecom service providers have limited pricing power. The telecommunications market is highly
competitive and includes several players including Idea Cellular, Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Vodafone,
Page 23
Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications. Also, the presence of several competitors intensifies
the competition for the spectrum auction. This may increase the costs to buy the spectrum which
may further pressurize margins.The company's African operations also witnessed severe competition.
The competitive pressures in Indian and African markets may affect the market share and pressurize
the company's margins.
Alternate technologies may impact the company's business
The emerging alternative messaging and voice calling technologies may negatively impact the
company's voice business. For instance, over the top (OTT), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
services, such as WhatsApp and Viber, have been witnessing a strong growth due to the emergence
of low cost smart phones and the emergence of cheap data plans. According to industry estimates,
these messaging services may result in a loss of nearly $3.1 million in text messaging revenue by
2016. In addition, these messaging services also offer calling features which would negatively impact
the voice revenues of telecom operators. Skype, which has 280 million active users, may result in
a loss of $36.5 billion in revenue every year for the telecom operators.
Furthermore, it is estimated that WhatsApp, which has a dominant share of the OTT market with
52% of mobile users, may result in a decline in the subscriber trunk dialing (STD) caller's subscriber
base for telecom operators. In addition, the increasing proliferation of smartphones may lead to an
increase in the demand for the alternative technologies. Though these alternative technologies
generate data revenues for telecom operators, it would not enable the telecom operators suffice the
decline in voice revenues.
The growing usage of alternate technologies may lead to a decline in the company's voice customer
base and negatively impact its market share and results of operations.
Page 24
TOP COMPETITORS
The following companies are the major competitors of Bharti Airtel Limited
Page 25
COMPANY VIEW
A statement by Sunil Bharti Mittal, the Chairman at Bharti Airtel is given below. The statement has
been taken from the companys 2014 annual report.
Dear Shareholders,
In the wake of tepid growth in the US and Europe, emerging and developing markets experienced
significant challenges, particularly in the shape of currency fluctuations. India, in particular, had a
tough year with decelerating GDP growth and persistent inflationary pressure. Africa, the other
significant economic region for us registered accelerated recovery during the year from the global
crisis induced by last years Euro debt problem.
Notwithstanding this economic turbulence, global telecommunications continued to generate plenty
of excitement. The tectonic shift towards data and internet gained momentum on the back of
accelerated smartphone penetration and data tariff rationalisation. While more than 28% of our total
base in India comprises active data customers, the corresponding number exceeds 32% in Africa.
The fact that data traffic nearly doubled during the year clearly points to the big change in revenue
diversification underway in these markets for us.
Mobile money is turning out to be one of the most transformational tools to come out of operators
baskets in Asia and Africa. With 1.7 Mn active airtel money accounts during Q4, we have made a
robust take off in India even though the regulatory environment is still not settled and hence, does
not support rapid penetration. In comparison, Africa appears to be a far more evolved market with
3.5 Mn customers. With a total transaction value of USD 2.2 Bn during Q4 in Africa, I am extremely
optimistic about the growth of this platform on the continent.
In India, we successfully participated in the February 2014 auction for spectrum in the 900 MHz and
the 1,800 MHz bands, which helped renew some of our early licences in the country. These
acquisitions are in line with our strategy of building a robust network for the future and enhancing
our leadership position in the fast growing data segment. We further reiterated our commitment to
a data-centric future as we completed the acquisition of Qualcomms 4G licences in four circles in
India.
In-country market consolidation through inorganic expansion is a key element of our business strategy
in Africa. The Company consolidated its market leadership in Uganda and Congo Brazzaville during
the year through its acquisition of Warid Telecoms operations in these countries. It gives me immense
pleasure to inform you that we have become the second largest operator in Nigeria, which overtook
South Africa as the largest economy in the continent.
We ushered in several changes in the top leadership and organisational profile in both the regions.
While Gopal Vittal was designated MD & CEO India and South Asia, Christian de Faria took overall
Page 26
responsibilities for African markets from Manoj Kohli, who has relocated to India after leading our
foray on the continent over the last three years.
The Company raised equity capital of Rs.67,956 Mn from M/s. Three Pillars Pte Ltd., an arm of Qatar
Foundation Endowment through a preferential allotment. Similarly, our wholly owned subsidiary,
Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV successfully completed several rounds of overseas long
dated bond issues across USD, EUR and CHF to raise equivalent of USD 5.3 Bn till date on extremely
favourable terms.
Our commitment to corporate governance received global recognition during the year when
Transparency International, the globally reputed civil society organisation ranked Bharti Airtel fourth
among the top 100 emerging market multinationals in a study on corporate transparency and reporting.
The Company Board also went through changes during the year. While Pulak Prasad and Nikesh
Arora departed the Board after their long and productive association, four new members - Sheikh
Faisal Thani Al-Thani, Ben Verwaayen, V. K. Viswanathan and D. K. Mittal joined us during this
period. Even as I welcome the new members to the Board, I take this opportunity to express my
sincere gratitude to Pulak and Nikesh for their meaningful contribution towards the success of the
Company.
The scope of our philanthropic School Programme in India was expanded during the year to include
new initiatives like Learning Centres and School Quality Support to reach out to an additional 9,900
students over and above over 38,000 students we are currently catering to across 254 schools under
the flagship Satya Bharti School Programme. In Africa, the Our School Programme is now reaching
out to nearly 24,000 students in 45 schools across 17 countries.
Telecom is at the cusp of a transformational change. Accelerated data consumption by a youthful
population is going to be the underlying story of this sector in the future. Our sustained investments
for licensing spectrum, network expansion and strategic acquisitions in different markets positions
us well for accruing incremental dividends in this evolving growth story.
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29