Bharti Airtel Shares Fall Over 2% as Sunil Mittal’s ICIL Plans Big Stake Sale Worth Rs. 7,190 Crore

Bharti Airtel shares were trading lower on Wednesday, slipping 2.24% to Rs. 2,113.20 at the time of writing after news of a major promoter-level stake sale. The decline comes despite the stock's strong overall performance this year, with year-to-date gains of 32.43%. On Tuesday, the telecom giant also touched a new 52-week high of Rs 2,174.50, taking its current market capitalisation to Rs 12,07,534.84 crore.

Promoter ICIL to Sell 3.43 Crore Shares Worth Rs. 7,190 Crore

According to a report by PTI, promoter entity Indian Continent Investment Ltd (ICIL), a part of Sunil Bharti Mittal's family office, is set to offload 3.43 crore equity shares, equivalent to a 0.56% stake in Bharti Airtel. The block deal, valued at nearly Rs. 7,190 crore or USD 806million, will be executed on stock exchanges today.

As per the term sheet, ICIL has fixed a floor price of Rs. 2,096.70 per share, which is around 3% lower than Airtel's previous closing price of Rs. 2,161.60 on the NSE. Currently, ICIL holds 90,267,792 shares, or a 1.48% stake in the company. After the sale, its holding will decline to 0.92%.

Bharti Airtel Q2 FY26 Results

Bharti Airtel posted a solid performance in its Q2 FY26 earnings, reporting a 14.2% quarter-on-quarter increase in consolidated net profit, rising from Rs. 5,948 crore to Rs. 6,791 crore. Revenue for the quarter came in at Rs. 52,145 crore, marking a 5.4% QoQ growth. One of the standout metrics was the average revenue per user (ARPU), which rose to Rs. 256 from Rs. 250 in Q1, all because of Airtel's stable premium user base and strong brand position.

Bharti Airtel Stock Target Price: Brokerage View

After the company's healthy Q2 performance, broking firm Nuvama reiterated a Buy rating on Bharti Airtel and revised its target price upward to Rs. 2,280, compared to its earlier estimate of Rs. 1,850. In its report, Nuvama said, "We expect Airtel to deliver a 14% compound annual growth rate in consolidated EBITDA between FY26 and FY28. Hence, we raised the EV/EBITDA multiple to 12x (from 11x earlier) for the India wireless and Homes businesses and rolled forward its valuation model to FY28."

Nuvama further said that the Homes broadband segment is likely to witness "strong growth over the next 4-5 years", with potential tariff hikes once the current "land grab" phase stabilises.

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