Mint Interview | Airtel to exit non-core biz for digital growth: Sunil Mittal

livemint.com:

Mint, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of the conglomerate, said the enterprise segment of Airtel could potentially value at $10 billion and disclosed plans to align Bharti's stake in Airtel with that of SingTel in the future. Amid these strategic shifts, Mittal acknowledged the competitive pressure from Elon Musk's Starlink in the satellite broadband space, advocating for the immediate allocation of satellite spectrum ahead of the new telecom law's enactment. He also touched on various facets of Bharti Group's operations, including partnerships with OTT platforms, the potential listing of its payments bank, and the dynamics of competition and collaboration within the telecom sector.

Edited excerpts: Airtel is increasingly embracing a digital identity beyond traditional telecommunications, with a successful banking venture and potential to convert its tower company into a subsidiary. It currently owns 48% in the tower business. We're focusing on areas where we've achieved significant growth, like our operations in Africa and satellite investments.

However, we're moving away from sectors like insurance, food, and skilling due to their lack of scalability. It's not for the valuation, that becomes a by-product. It is to sell more products and services to our customers, especially enterprise customers, whether it's cybersecurity solutions, security CPass.

That part, to my mind, is job well done. We don't produce everything ourselves. We have platforms for music, video platform.