Bharti Airtel block deal today; SingTel arm eyes Rs 8,568 cr share sale; target prices

Bharti Airtel Ltd shares are in focus on Friday as SingTel's wholly-owned subsidiary Pastel Ltd is looking to offload Rs 8,568 crore or $1 billion worth telecom stock via block deals today. Pastel may sell about 4.76 crore shares at dollar-rupee exchange rate of 85.68. The floor price for the same is set at Rs 1,800 apiece, which is at 3.6 per cent discount to the previous day's closing price of Rs 1,867.20.  

The deal is being managed by JP Morgan, the designated broker for the transaction. 

Pastel Ltd is one of the promoter group entities in Bharti Airtel, which directly holds 9.49 per cent stake in the telecom operator as of March 31, 2025. 

In March last year, SingTel's Pastel sold 4.9 crore or 0.8 per cent  of the outstanding shares in Airtel to GQG Partners. It also cut its direct stake in Airtel by 3.3 per cent for S$2.54 billion in 2022.

Bharti Airtel recently reported a solid March quarter with its India mobile revenue, Ebitda and operating cash flow growing 21 per cent, 30 per cent and 58 per cent YoY, respectively. 

"Results were largely in-line, excluding favourable exceptionals. Airtel doubled its dividend YoY, and with strong cash generation ahead, we see scope for further increases. While Q4 capex was elevated, Airtel’s capex fell YoY in FY25 and it expects capex to reduce further in FY26, especially in India Mobile," BNP Paribas said.

While overall capex is set to decline, Airtel is looking to invest in high-growth areas such as home broadband, enterprise and digital while reducing subsidies in the low-growth DTH business. 

"We continue to see Airtel as an earnings compounding story. We tweak our estimates but our TP is unchanged. Retain O/P," BNP Paribas said.

ICICI Securities said Bharti’s execution across businesses remains
impeccable, and that it believes the telecom operator grabbing higher market share. It is now shifting focus to drive faster growth in home and enterprise business by expanding distribution and product portfolio, the domestic brokerage said as it suggested a target price of Rs 1,900 on the stock.

MOFSL likes Bharti Airtel's superior execution on the premiumidation agenda. With moderation in capex intensity, Airtel is likely to generate significant free cash flows of Rs 1 lakh crore over FY26-27, MOFSL said as it suggested 'Buy' and a target of Rs 2,110 on Bharti Airtel.