Bharti Airtel on Wednesday announced a new corporate structure to “sharpen focus on digital”.
“The new structure envisages Airtel Digital Ltd. folding into the listed entity, Bharti Airtel,” the company said in a statement.
“The latter will now house all of the digital assets spanning Wynk Music, Airtel X stream, Airtel Thanks, Mitra Payments platform used by a million retailers, Airtel Ads, Airtel IQ, Airtel Secure, Airtel Cloud and all future digital products and services,” the company added.
The telecom firm said it intended to house all telecom businesses in a newly created entity, Airtel Ltd. — a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd. “It is intended to eventually fold the DTH business into Airtel Limited to move towards the NDCP [National Digital Communications Policy] vision of converged services to customers, it said.
The company added that it had moved the government to seek clarity on licensing policy given that carriage i.e. telecom and DTH, was currently being regulated and managed under two separate Ministries of Communications and I&B respectively.
Airtel Payments Bank will remain a separate entity under Bharti Airtel. All of the company’s infrastructure businesses such as Nxtra and Indus Towers and International subsidiaries and affiliates, will continue to remain in separate entities.
“The new structure sets the exciting future course for Bharti Airtel and provides focus on the four distinct businesses – Digital, India, International and Infrastructure, each, in a razor sharp way,” said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman, Bharti Airtel.
“We believe this will provide agility, expertise and operational rigour to serve our customers brilliantly while providing flexibility to unlock value for our shareholders. This structure will serve us well over the coming years and is a win-win for all stakeholders,” he said.