Telco Employees Rate Airtel As The Best Company; But S&P Cuts Airtel’s Rating To Negative!

In the recently held ET Telecom’s Salary Survey 2017-18, Bharti Airtel has beaten Jio, and all other telecom firms to emerge as the best company.

This means that telecom employees in India if given a choice, will choose Bharti Airtel over any other company to work with.

However, Standard & Poor’s or S&P, the leading American financial services company, has downgraded Airtel’s rating to negative from stable, which signifies that not everything is ok with the company in terms of financial matters.

Is Jio tsunami the reason?

Telco Employees Rate Airtel Best Company!

Airtel has no doubt posted their first net loss in last 15 years of their existence, as their net profits are down by 77%.

But this didn’t deter telecom employee from voting Bharti Airtel has the best telecom operator out there.

A Whopping 21% of the participant in the annual survey rated Bharti Airtel as the preferred company they want to work with.

At a distant #2 are Nokia and Vodafone with 9% votes each.

Telecom behemoth Ericsson is at #3 with 8% votes.

Reliance Jio, the disruptor of Indian telecom industry finds themselves at #4 position, tied up with Idea Cellular. They both received 6% votes.

Google is surprisingly at #7 position, with just 4% votes, even as Cisco, Tata Communication and BSNL trail at #8, #11 and #13 position.

The report says,

“Respondents cited Airtel’s brand presence, leadership and its exploration of latest technologies as some of the reasons for their inclination towards the company. “

Vodafone has scored heavy for their employee-friendly work culture and good salary package.

S&P Downgrades Airtel To Negative!

Even as telco employees are going ga-ga over Airtel’s brand presence, their financial stability has once again been questioned, hard.

Financial services company S&P has downgraded Airtel’s ranking from stable to negative, mainly due to their terrible financial records for this fiscal.

S&P said,

“We view an aggravation in price competition without any meaningful reduction in capex as key risks to a recovery in Bharti’s financial performance,”

RIght now, Bharti Airtel’s ranking is BBB-.

S&P has clearly stated that the negative ranking is due to a saturation in the tariff of the telecom market, and unless Airtel increases their data packs, their financial position will remain unstable.

But with cut-throat competition from Jio, Airtel cannot afford to increase their data packs and overall tariffs.

We will keep you updated, as we receive more inputs.