Post-FPO Vi’s priority is to settle dues: CEO
NEW DELHI: Cash-strapped Vodafone Idea, the only one among India’s top three telecom operators without a 5G service, has multiple competing demands on the ₹45,000 crore it’s raising in equity and debt. But its immediate priority is to clear the dues it owes its vendors.
The telecom company, which on Monday began road shows for its ₹18,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO) of shares, owes an estimated ₹10,000 crore to vendors, including its tower and network equipment providers. Overall, it is burdened with a ₹2.1 lakh crore debt, including more than ₹1.3 lakh crore for spectrum and another ₹65,000 crore as part of a revenue-sharing mechanism that it owes the government.
The debt is payable over the years, up to 2040-41, but the moratorium on payments owed for the spectrum ends in the first half of FY26.
“The idea is first to pay the vendor dues over a period of time,” said managing director and chief executive Akshaya Moondra in an interaction with Mint. Vodafone Idea, though, hasn’t specified the quantum of vendor dues. The firm’s tower provider Indus Towers has asked for its dues, pegged at about ₹7,000 crore, to be cleared in one go, Mint reported on Tuesday.
The company will ascertain its cash position and its ability to pay government dues when the moratorium ends, and will accordingly seek the Centre’s support, he said. “This will not be every year but in the initial couple of years the possibility could be high,” Moondra said, adding that the support could be in the form of a waiver or deferment. Vodafone Idea generates about ₹8,500 crore a year in cash, and its total debt owed to banks had reduced to ₹4,500 crore at the end of February, allowing it the runway needed for clearing vendor dues, Moondra said.
He added that the carrier was in discussions for a bank debt of ₹25,000 crore, which will be a facility that can be drawn on over a period of time and primarily be used towards capital expenditure for growth.
The debt-laden firm will use ₹12,750 crore for network expansion till FY26, of which ₹5,720 crore will be for setting up 22,000 5G sites and the rest for 26,000 new 4G sites, upgrading existing 4G sites, and for other general corporate purposes.
Moondra said upgrading existing 4G sites will be key to arresting the fall in subscribers, and that the lack of 5G services “had not made any material difference” in customer churn. The telco plans to roll out 5G services in six–nine months, focusing on geographies that account for about 40% of its revenue.
Vodafone Idea has raised about ₹5,400 crore from anchor investors including GQG Partners, Fidelity Investments, UBS Fund Management, Jupiter Fund Management, Australian Super, besides domestic investors India Infoline, Motilal Oswal, HDFC Mutual Fund, SBI General Insurance, and Quant. In a statement to the stock exchanges on Wednesday, the company said it had finalised the allocation of 4.9 billion shares to anchor investors at ₹11 apiece. US-based GQG Partners has been allocated the highest number of shares, worth ₹1,345 crore, while Fidelity Investments has invested about ₹772 crore in the FPO.
Post the FPO and a preferential allotment of shares worth ₹2,075 crore to promoters, promoter shareholding will be about 38%, government shareholding at 24%, and the remaining 38% will be held by the public. On the bloated equity capital of about ₹66,000 crore after the FPO, Moondra said further stake dilution was “not bad” since the company’s balance sheet was leveraged and needed to be corrected.