The combined market valuation of two Bharti Group companies – Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom – surged past the $100 billion mark after a relentless rally in Airtel shares. The telecom major’s market capitalisation surged by almost $10 billion in just four sessions.

Shares of Bharti Airtel added another 3.5% in Tuesday’s trade, with a cumulative gain of 10.3% during the last four sessions. The stock hit yet another record of ₹1,351 on the NSE. The surge in Bharti Airtel’s shares took the company’s market capitalisation to $95.8 billion, whereas its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom commands a market valuation of $5.6 billion.

With a market valuation of about $96 billion, Bharti Airtel ranked fourth after Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and HDFC Bank. While Reliance Industries leads the market cap league table with $237 billion, TCS and HDFC Bank command $168 billion and $137 billion, respectively.

To be sure, the market capitalisation of Bharti Airtel also includes its partly-paid-up shares. During FY22, the company allotted as many as 39.23 crore partly-paid-up equity shares at an issue price of ₹535 per share. While ₹133.75 per share was collected through application, the remaining is to be collected in two more additional calls from eligible applicants under the rights issue.

Antique Stock Broking, which initiated coverage on Bharti Airtel with a target price of ₹1,505, believes the company is set to ride its best financial performance phase in over a decade driven by tariff hikes, 2G upgradation, strong growth of enterprise and Fibre to the Home (FTTH), and a fall in capex post the 5G rollout over the next three years.

“We expect return ratios to top 20%, and the likely historic high free cash flows to drive balance sheet deleveraging,” said the domestic brokerage in a recent note.

On the other hand, Bharti Hexacom, which debuted with 43% gains, has already returned almost 63% from its offer price of ₹570. The promoter Bharti Airtel held 70% in the company, and analysts expect its exposure to the parent’s segment would generate higher returns going forward.

Jefferies, which initiated coverage on Bharti Hexacom with a buy recommendation, argues “The company offers a strong growth outlook given that it operates in markets which have lower tele-density and have witnessed higher translation of tariff hikes into ARPUs in the past.”

The foreign brokerage expects Hexacom to deliver 16% and 21% annualised growth in revenue and EBITDA.

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