Bharti Airtel, on Wednesday, has announced a new corporate structure which it believes will sharpen the focus of the company in driving the rapidly unfolding digital opportunity in India while enabling it to unlock value. Airtel Digital Limited will now fold into the listed entity Bharti Airtel, which will now house all of the digital assets spanning Wynk Music, Airtel X stream, Airtel Thanks, Mitra Payments, Airtel Ads, Airtel IQ, Airtel Secure, Airtel Cloud and all future digital products and services.

The Board in its meeting held on Wednesday approved the scheme enabling the company to file for all statutory approvals to give effect to the proposed rearrangement.

However, Airtel Payments Bank will remain a separate entity under Bharti Airtel and work closely with the growing customer base to play a pivotal role in realising the digital opportunity that payments and financial services provides, it said.

Separate entities

Airtel further said that all of the company’s infrastructure businesses such as Nxtra and Indus Towers will continue to remain in separate entities as they are currently, and so will its international subsidiaries and affiliates. “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. We believe this will provide agility, expertise and operational rigour to serve our customers brilliantly while providing flexibility to unlock value for our shareholders,” Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Airtel, said.

This structure will serve well over the coming years and is a win-win for all stakeholders, he added.

The digital ambition of Bharti Airtel is closely intertwined with the spine that connectivity provides across the country. It is therefore intended to house all the telecom businesses in a newly created entity, Airtel Limited – a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited, the company said.

Bharti Telemedia, the 100 per cent arm operating DTH services will sit alongside Airtel Limited for now. It is intended to eventually fold the DTH business into Airtel Limited to move towards the NDCP vision of converged services to customers.

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