The Sensex and Nifty 50 surged over 1 per cent on Wednesday, but one prominent component saw huge selling. Bharti Airtel tumbled nearly three per cent in the morning from its previous close after a promoter entity pared its stake in the telecom major. While the stock recovered a bit later in the session, it still ended 1.6 per cent lower at Rs 2,127.10 and was the biggest loser on the Sensex.
It is worth noting that Bharti Airtel has risen nearly 35 per cent over the past 12 months, significantly outperforming the Sensex, which has gained seven per cent in the same period.
Indian Continent Investment Ltd. (ICIL), an entity led by Bharti Airtel’s billionaire founder Sunil Mittal, sold 3.43 crore shares, amounting to 0.56 per cent stake in the company, for about Rs 7,190 crore on Wednesday.
The shares were reportedly offloaded at a floor price of Rs 2,096.70, a near 3 per cent discount to Bharti Airtel’s closing price on Tuesday.
The promoters of Bharti Airtel have been paring their stake in the company for some time now. The promoter shareholding has come down from 53.14 per cent in the July-September 2024 quarter to 50.27 per cent in July-September 2025.
In particular, ICIL’s shareholding has come down from 4.51 per cent in September 2024 to 1.48 per cent in September 2025. After Wednesday’s stake sale, the shareholding of ICIL will come down further to 0.92 per cent.
Among other promoter holding companies, the shareholding of Pastel Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Singapore’s telecom major Singtel, has come down from 9.50 per cent in September 2024 to 8.32 per cent in September 2025. In the same period, Bharti Telecom’s shareholding in Bharti Airtel has risen to 40.47 per cent from 39.13 per cent. Bharti Telecom has been jointly held by the Mittals and Singtel.
The stake sale by ICIL this year comes at a time Sunil Mittal’s family office and private equity firm Warburg Pincus had potentially been eyeing a stake in consumer appliances maker Haier India. Several other entities too had been interested in picking up a stake, although reports had later stated that Sunil Mitttal’s family office had ended the talks seemingly over valuation differences.
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel’s fundamentals remain strong. Its consolidated net profit surged 89 per cent from a year ago to Rs 6,792 crore, while revenue was up nearly 26 per cent to Rs 52,145 crore in July-September.
Several equity market analysts have been bullish on the telecom company.
“From a long-term perspective, Bharti Airtel remains well-positioned for sustainable growth, backed by its strong digital services portfolio, disciplined capital management, and focus on high-value customer segments,” Kuber Chauhan, research analyst, Axis Direct, said, pointing out that its ARPU (average revenue per user) had remained the best in the industry.
Airtel’s ARPU rose from Rs 233 to Rs 256 in the second quarter. Reliance Jio’s ARPU last quarter stood at Rs 211.4 and it was at Rs 180 for Vodafone Idea.
Earlier this month, S&P Global Ratings raised its long-term issuer credit rating on Bharti Airtel to BBB from BBB-, stating that the company’s earnings growth would remain robust over the next 24 months, fueled by its Indian operations.
“More rational competition in India will continue to fortify Bharti Airtel’s earnings quality. We forecast the company’s India operations’ reported EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) will triple in the financial year 2026, compared with a decade ago. Through this period, Bharti Airtel has solidified its market position as a close second in India’s telco industry, amid an industry consolidation,” S&P said.
However, it also warned that rising debt at Bharti Airtel’s parent could weigh on its improvement in creditworthiness. Despite a rise in dividend receipts from Airtel, debt at Bharti Telecom could continue to increase and will remain a “monitoring point,” it said.