Asian businessman Mukesh Ambani’s Jio caused a stir in the telecom world after its launch. Due to this, many telecommunications companies were driven out of the market. Bharti Mittal’s Airtel was also surrounded by this crisis. But Sunil Bharti Mittal’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned out to be a turning point for him. It’s not us, but this is what Sunil Bharti Mittal himself says. When his company ran into trouble after the arrival of Jio, a piece of advice from Prime Minister Modi changed his life.
In fact, Bharti Group founder Sunil Bharti Mittal himself revealed this in a media interview. He said a meeting he had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2018 turned out to be a turning point for Bharti Airtel, which was facing a crisis at that time.
Sunil Mittal told how his luck changed?
Mittal said in an interview to Economics Times that Reliance Jio was providing free voice and data services. Furthermore, many decisions taken by the telecom regulator had negatively affected old telecom companies like Airtel. Mittal said: ‘…in (September) 2018, I made an appointment to meet the prime minister. I was then the president of the GSMA and had just left the position of president of the International Chambers of Commerce, when I used to brief him (the prime minister) sometimes on the WTO, the G20 and other issues.
I spoke to him about the Indian telecom industry. I told him that things were going very badly and the situation was becoming very worrying. Jio, which entered the telecom market in 2016, offered free voice and data services. Further, TRAI had also taken many such decisions which Mittal felt were helping one of the parties.
Prime Minister Modi had given advice.
Recalling his meeting with Modi, Mittal said, "I can fight in the market, but I can't fight with the government." Mittal said: 'He told me that this government will not lean towards any side. Everything that is good for the country will be done. Struggles in the market. I have no opinion on this. But on the government's side, you can be sure it won't take sides. And that was enough for me. I got up and started thanking him… This was a turning point (for Airtel). The result is that Airtel reached a market capitalization of $100 billion on May 27.
mCap reached $100 billion from $19 billion
Airtel's market capitalization in 2019 was around $19 billion, less than the amount invested in the business. But the company has added more than $80 billion to its market capitalization over the past five years. Mittal further said in the interview that "it is incorrect to say that this government is favoring only a few people." I think this $100 billion market capitalization is a testament not only to my company but also to the current situation in India. Money is coming into this country, a lot of capital is coming, investments are coming, the stock market is growing. Such high valuations are the result of a stable, strong and functional economy under very strong leadership.
