New Delhi, Nov. 17 -- S&P Global Ratings on Monday upgraded Bharti Airtel's credit rating to "BBB" from "BBB-", with a positive outlook, on expectations of a strong earnings growth over the next 24 months.

The rating company expects the company's growth to be driven by its Indian operations. It expects Airtel to increase subscribers by 2-4% with an average revenue per user (Arpu) growth of 6-8% over the same period. The growth would come from customers' upgrades to higher-priced plans and more data consumption.

"The positive outlook reflects our view that Bharti Airtel's continued deleveraging, and a correspondingly supportive leverage tolerance, could support a higher long-term issuer credit rating over the next 24 months," S&P Global ...