Voda Idea ğaises ₹5,500 cğ fğom anchoğ investoğs

Anchor book portion of FPO is oversubscribed, with 65% of it coming from global investors

VodafoneIdeaislearnttohave raised about ₹5,500 crore fromanchorinvestorsincluding GQG Partners, Fidelity Investments, UBS, Jupiter FundManagementandaclutchofIndian investors such as India Infoline, Motilal OswalandQuant,saidpeoplefamiliarwith the details of the carrier’s ₹18,000 crore follow-onpublicofferwhichwillopenfor retail investors on 18 April.

“The anchor book portion of the FPO isover-subscribed.About65%ofitisfrom global investors,” one of the people said, asking not to be named. Vodafone Idea did not respond to queries as of Tuesday evening. The anchor book allocation is expectedtobeannouncedlatertonight.

Executives of the third largest telecom services provider have been doing roadshows since Monday of what is being considered the largest FPO by an Indian company till date. “The anchor investor sentiment is an indication of the demand and a precursor for the interest it may see among retail investors,” another person aware of the details said, asking not to be named.

The FPO has been priced at ₹10-11 per share and will remain open till 22 April.

The minimum bid lot for subscription has been fixed at 1,298 equity shares. On Monday, executives of Vodafone Idea said that they expected the offer to be fully subscribed.

The proceeds of the offer are crucial for the telco which will roll out 5G services in six to nine months, with the aim of offering 5G within 24-30 months to the geographies that contribute 40% of its revenues. The carrier remains the only private sector company to not have 5G services on offer, unlike Airtel and Reliance Jio. The cash-strapped telco will use ₹12,750 crore for network expansion till FY26, of which ₹5,720 crore will be used to set up 22,000 5G sites and the rest for setting up 26,000 new 4G sites, upgrading existing 4G sites and for general corporate purposes. It owes ₹2,170 crore to the government in FY25 as installment for spectrum bought in the previous auction, and FPO proceeds will be used for this payment as well.

The Indian government, the single-largest shareholder in Vodafone Idea with a 32% holding, would see its share in the telco drop to about 24% following the FPO. Analysts at BofA Securities said that the promoter shareholding could fall to about 38% from 50.3%.

₹10-11 Price band of the company’s share sale via FPO