Bharti Airtel: Defensive but not yet delivering? How to think of next tariff hike timeline

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Bharti Airtel: Defensive but not yet delivering? How to think of next tariff hike timeline

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Bharti Airtel

Defensive but not yet delivering? How to

think of next tariff hike timeline

Maintain Rating: BUY | PO: 2,260 INR | Price: 1,908 INR

Why is Bharti not showing defensive characteristics yet? 21 May 2026

One of the key questions that we are getting asked about Bharti from investors is why it Equity

is not behaving as a defensive name in the current environment (Bharti down 10% YTD

vs. Nifty Index down 9.5%). In our view, the primary reason the stock has not Sachin Salgaonkar >> Research Analyst

outperformed the benchmark is limited visibility of a timeline for the next tariff hike: a BofAS India

pushback of tariff hike would lead to consensus estimate downgrades as it’s partly baked +91sachin.salgaonkar@bofa.com22 6632 8667

in. Other investor concerns are around capital allocation and promoter sell-down risks. Pankaj Mehendiratta >>

However, we note that these two risks are not relevant for Hexacom (not covered). Research Analyst

BofAS India

Despite this, Hexacom stock is down 12% YTD & has also underperformed the benchmark +91 22 6632 8684

index. All Indian telcos, in our view, are not factoring any near-term tariff hikes. At 8X pankaj.mehendiratta@bofa.com

FY28E EV/EBITDA (with limited expectations on tariff hikes), we expect Bharti to Kaushik Gurumurthy, CFA >>

Research Analyst

outperform our coverage universe going forward, especially in a rising inflationary BofAS India

environment given the defensive nature of its earnings. Indeed, consensus estimates for +91 22 6632 8357 kaushik.gurumurthy@bofa.com

Bharti have moved up YTD and we see room for further upward revisions, given stable

momentum across all businesses.