Airtel Payments Bank to list by September 2027, says CEO Anubrata Biswas

Airtel Payments Bank is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) by September 2027 on the back of a regulatory mandate after it surpassed ₹500 crore net worth last year, said Anubrata Biswas, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO). 

The payments bank, which crossed the milestone in September last year, is required to go public within three years from that date. 

“Our net worth in FY25 — September 2024 to be precise —crossed ₹500 crore. The regulatory mandate is that by three years, we must list. So, September 2027 is the end date by which we must get listed and that gives the overall context where we are headed,” Biswas told Business Standard during an interaction in the city. 

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) guidelines on 'licensing of small finance banks' mandate a public listing within three years from the date an entity reaches a net worth of ₹500 crore. 

  The net profit of Airtel Payments Bank in FY25 stood at ₹63 crore, up 82.5 per cent from ₹34.5 crore in FY24.

 

Net profit during the fourth quarter of FY25 (Q4FY25) stood at ₹26 crore. Sequentially, quarterly net profit grew 40.5 per cent from ₹18.5 crore in Q3FY25. 

The bank’s revenue in FY25 stood at ₹2,709 crore, growing 47.5 per cent from ₹1,836 crore in FY24. 

Revenue in Q4FY25 stood at ₹726 crore, a 34.7 per cent rise from ₹539 crore in Q4FY24.

 

Sequentially, revenue grew 3.7 per cent from ₹700 crore in Q3FY25. 

“Four years ago, 90 per cent of our revenue was from payments. Today, 60 per cent of revenue is from transactions, 30-33 per cent from bank account business, which is savings bank account, and the rest is net interest income,” he said. 

Biswas added that the bank’s services are used by about 100 million customers every month. Of these, 24 million use it for bank accounts, about 50 million for transaction products, and the rest for business-to-business (B2B) use cases such as urban transit.

“More than a third of our bank accounts every month are opened by people living in cities. Around 77 per cent of them use it as their second account for online payment safety,” he added.   

Progress report 

• 1 billion monthly transactions processed
• 100 million users on average every month
• 1 million bank accounts opened each month
• 70% new accounts remain active after 3 months
• 33% of new accounts opened by women in rural India