What PM Narendra Modi told Sunil Mittal in the meeting that proved to be “turning point” for Bharti Airtel

A meeting with PM Narendra Modi in September 2018 proved a turning point for Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal. In an exclusive interaction with Economic Times, Mittal spoke about a range of things including his meeting with PM Modi, Airtel’s journey to $100 billion market capitalisation and more.
Mittal recalled Reliance Jio’s entry in 2016 and how it turned the industry upside down.“September 2016 was the Jio launch and 2018 was the time when I think the industry was in the most distress… Ebitda had crashed due to the free services. We had to keep going down (in terms of tariffs). Then the first losses started at that time after many years and debt was pretty high. So the company was shaky. And in March 2018, I still recall that you could sense a concern among the rank and file of the company. You could see it on the faces of professionals working at Airtel. Company after company was folding up — Tatas selling to us, three companies going into NCLT. And that was the time that the regulatory hits started to bother me. Regulations, which were coming one after the other, were disturbing,” said.

“I sought a meeting with the PM”

“And then in 2018, I sought a meeting with the PM,” he went on to add. “I was still the chairman of GSMA… just coming out from the chairmanship of the International Chamber of Commerce, when I used to brief him (PM) occasionally on WTO, G20 and other issues. So, I took his permission to talk about the Indian telecom industry. I told him that things were very bad and the situation was getting very alarming. I said I will fight in the marketplace, but I can’t fight the government… we spoke in Hindi. He told me that this government will not tilt towards either side. Whatever is good for the country will be done. You fight in the marketplace… I don’t have a view on that. But you can be sure that the government will not take sides,” Mittal said.
He went on to add how the PM’s words kind of assured him. That was enough for me. I got up and I thanked him, and said, “I will fight in the market”. This was the turning point.”

Airtel’s $100-billion market cap is testimony to today’s India

Talking about Airtel’s $100 billion market cap milestone, Mittal said, “This $100-billion market cap is a testimony to what India is today, not just my company. Money is pouring into this country, a lot of capital is coming in, investments are coming in, the stock market is rising. These massive valuations are a function of a stable, solid, functional economy under a very solid leader.”