Bharti Airtel denies Amazon investment reports

On Friday, after Bharti Airtel denied media reports of investment by Amazon, its stock gave all the early gains and opened higher by 3 per cent intraday, which was well supported by positive market sentiment.

News reports have been stating that digital market leader Amazon Inc. has been in talks with the company, seeking to make an investment to the tune of US$ 2 billion. The company mentioned that it usually does consider works with such digital and OTT players seeking their products, content etc., however, it clearly denied any such reports of consideration with Amazon.

These reports were taken positively as markets have already witnessed several large names coming into Indian companies. One such case is RIL which has recently informed about an investment from Facebook. Additionally, some of the key fundamentals of Bharti Airtel also show positive data points. Opposing stiff competition from Reliance Jio, the company reported increase of 1.9 per cent YoY in customer base at the end of FY20 as well as average revenue per user of Rs 154 which is still one of the highest in the industry. Its other digital services such as DTH, Airtel Thanks, Wynk add more value to the company.

The stock has been among the top performers recently. During times of lockdown, weak macro data, strong competition etc., the scrip reached its 52-week high Rs 611.70 in May 2020.