Jio’s growth forced mergers, bankruptcy filings, says Fitch; here’s how Airtel may perform in 2019

Reliance Jio’s aggressive posturing has begun to show the divergent impact on entrenched telcos, with Vodafone Idea getting impacted sharply and Bharti Airtel holding on, a report said on Monday. The deep-pocketed Jio’s entry has so far impacted all the telcos, forcing mergers and also bankruptcy filings. For Vodafone Idea, it was the market share loss to Jio which proved to be the undoing and led to a weak numbers for the June quarter, Airtel could hold on, global rating agency Fitch said in a note.

The agency also estimated that Airtel, which has now begun the third biggest telco after Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, to show operating profit growth in India this year on improvements in average revenue per user (ARPU), easing competition and cost savings.