Airtel 'very strong' and 'battle hardened' after crises: Sunil Mittal

Company's digital revenue should be more than a billion dollars in the next few years, says group chairman

Stating that Bharti Airtel has put behind its crises and has emerged stronger, Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal referred to OTT (over the top) business to point out that digital revenue should become meaningful. He was speaking at a virtual CII summit on Thursday.

“Today Airtel’s balance sheet is healthy. It’s strong. And we are now down to two and half players for a country of the size of India. The company has become very very strong and battle-hardened now,” Mittal said.

But while telcos such as Airtel lost out on SMS revenue with the advent of WhatsApp, Mittal is hoping to bring value-added services for customers. “Our digital revenue should become meaningful in its own right to over a billion dollars in the next few years,” he said. ‘’Our companies have woken up very late. Trillions of dollars of valuation have transferred to the OTT players whether it’s Facebook, Google or e-commerce players….They all ride on us…We spend billions and they enjoy trillions of valuation…We just can’t let everything go out.’’

Mittal recounted the company’s existential challenge in 2002, the Supreme Court adjusted gross revenue verdict, regulatory challenges and competition with rivals over the last two decades.

“I wish we had lost this (AGR) case in 2005, just because we won the case you never paid the money and finally when we lost in Supreme Court, it came back to haunt us. So it was backbreaking,” Mittal remarked.

The government has computed Airtel’s AGR dues at over Rs 43,000 crore.

While Vodafone Idea has struggled to raise funds, Mittal said Airtel has been able to raise around $18 billion in the past 30-34 months through rights issue and stake sales in tower businesses.

Mittal also spoke on organisational culture. “You must have a culture that works. When you mix and match it and when you strap culture from outside it does not work,” Mittal said. Citing the example of Vodafone Idea merger, Mittal said: “You had different work cultures coming together — Vodafone with its open MNC culture with Idea with its Indian culture focused on financial result orientation”.

Mittal said the merged entity could have become a fabulous combination of two large companies and could have continued to retain the number one rank. “But it just did not work,” Mittal stated.