ReutersMumbai: The board of directors of Vodafone Idea on Friday approved raising up to 20,000 crore more even as its net loss for the March quarter widened sequentially to 7,166 crore from 6,609 crore and it continued to lose subscribers.
Raising fresh funds will be critical to the telco’s 4G and 5G expansion as it tries to stop user losses and turn around its business. The company said it would evaluate raising money by way of equity or debt or any other convertible instruments in one or more tranches.
The JV of UK’s Vodafone Group Plc and India’s Aditya Birla Group was unable to arrest subscriber churn even as it commenced pan-India 5G rollouts this quarter covering major markets like Mumbai and Delhi. In December, subscriber base had fallen below the 200 million mark for the first time since its merger in 2019.
In March, it further declined to 198.2 million.
SR Batliboy and Associates, the auditors of Vi, cautioned that the operator’s financial performance has impacted its ability to generate cash flows that it needs to settle/refinance its liabilities as they fall due.
“The group's ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on support from the DoT on the AGR (adjusted gross revenue) matter, successfully arranging funding and generation of cash flow from its operations that it needs to settle its liabilities as they fall due,” the auditor said.
But the top management was upbeat about the results, pointing out that the pace of subscriber losses had slowed and the average revenue per user (ARPU) improved.
“Early indicators show improvement across key business metrics and with our ongoing investments, we are well placed to effectively participate in the growth opportunity offered by the Industry,” Akshaya Moondra, chief executive of Vodafone Idea, said in an earnings statement late on Friday.
Vi commenced 5G services in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chandigarh, and Patna this quarter, and plans to extend coverage to all 17 circles where it holds 5G airwaves by August 2025.
However, the widespread 5G rollouts by larger rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have made it challenging for Vi to catch up in terms of market penetration, user adoption, and overall perception.
The telco’s ARPU — a key performance metric — grew marginally to Rs 164 in the March quarter, from Rs 163 in the preceding quarter, as the residual flow-through of headline rate hikes in July 2024 was mostly absorbed by now.
Quarterly revenue grew 0.9% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 11,014 crore.
“This has been a turnaround quarter for us, marked by the highest average daily revenue in the past five years and a significant reduction in subscriber loss,” Moondra said.
The telco lost 1.6 million subscribers in the January-March period compared with 5.2 million in the previous three-month period.
Its net debt reduced substantially to Rs 1.97 lakh crore as on March 31, from Rs 2.29 lakh crore in the previous quarter, as the Government of India converted AGR-related dues to equity share in the company.
Of this, Vi’s bank debt stood at Rs 2,345 crore and payment towards spectrum obligations plus AGR totalled Rs 1.95 lakh crore at March-end.
The firm’s stock fell 3.22% before closing at Rs 6.92 per share on BSE Friday. Results were declared after market closing.
Prior to the merger on August 31, 2018, Vodafone India had 204.68 million subscribers and Idea Cellular had 190.51 million subscribers.
However, with the telco incurring losses since the merger and weak cash position due to piling debt meant it wasn’t able to invest adequately in expanding 4G network and start 5G rollouts, leading to rapid user losses, analysts said.
Vi ended the March quarter with 198.2 million users, falling from 199.2 million in the December quarter. Its 4G subscribers base grew a tad to 126.4 million as of March-end from 126 million as of December-end.
Having already raised equity funding of about Rs 24,000 crore, the cash-strapped telco is also in talks with a consortium of banks to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore and additional non-fund-based facilities of up to Rs 10,000 crore, the company had said previously.
“We remain engaged with lenders to secure debt financing to support our broader capex plans of Rs 50,000–55,000 crore,” Moondra added.
Raising fresh funds will be critical to the telco’s 4G and 5G expansion as it tries to stop user losses and turn around its business. The company said it would evaluate raising money by way of equity or debt or any other convertible instruments in one or more tranches.
The JV of UK’s Vodafone Group Plc and India’s Aditya Birla Group was unable to arrest subscriber churn even as it commenced pan-India 5G rollouts this quarter covering major markets like Mumbai and Delhi. In December, subscriber base had fallen below the 200 million mark for the first time since its merger in 2019.
In March, it further declined to 198.2 million.
SR Batliboy and Associates, the auditors of Vi, cautioned that the operator’s financial performance has impacted its ability to generate cash flows that it needs to settle/refinance its liabilities as they fall due.
“The group's ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on support from the DoT on the AGR (adjusted gross revenue) matter, successfully arranging funding and generation of cash flow from its operations that it needs to settle its liabilities as they fall due,” the auditor said.
But the top management was upbeat about the results, pointing out that the pace of subscriber losses had slowed and the average revenue per user (ARPU) improved.
“Early indicators show improvement across key business metrics and with our ongoing investments, we are well placed to effectively participate in the growth opportunity offered by the Industry,” Akshaya Moondra, chief executive of Vodafone Idea, said in an earnings statement late on Friday.
Vi commenced 5G services in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chandigarh, and Patna this quarter, and plans to extend coverage to all 17 circles where it holds 5G airwaves by August 2025.
However, the widespread 5G rollouts by larger rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have made it challenging for Vi to catch up in terms of market penetration, user adoption, and overall perception.
The telco’s ARPU — a key performance metric — grew marginally to Rs 164 in the March quarter, from Rs 163 in the preceding quarter, as the residual flow-through of headline rate hikes in July 2024 was mostly absorbed by now.
Quarterly revenue grew 0.9% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 11,014 crore.
“This has been a turnaround quarter for us, marked by the highest average daily revenue in the past five years and a significant reduction in subscriber loss,” Moondra said.
The telco lost 1.6 million subscribers in the January-March period compared with 5.2 million in the previous three-month period.
Its net debt reduced substantially to Rs 1.97 lakh crore as on March 31, from Rs 2.29 lakh crore in the previous quarter, as the Government of India converted AGR-related dues to equity share in the company.
Of this, Vi’s bank debt stood at Rs 2,345 crore and payment towards spectrum obligations plus AGR totalled Rs 1.95 lakh crore at March-end.
The firm’s stock fell 3.22% before closing at Rs 6.92 per share on BSE Friday. Results were declared after market closing.
Prior to the merger on August 31, 2018, Vodafone India had 204.68 million subscribers and Idea Cellular had 190.51 million subscribers.
However, with the telco incurring losses since the merger and weak cash position due to piling debt meant it wasn’t able to invest adequately in expanding 4G network and start 5G rollouts, leading to rapid user losses, analysts said.
Vi ended the March quarter with 198.2 million users, falling from 199.2 million in the December quarter. Its 4G subscribers base grew a tad to 126.4 million as of March-end from 126 million as of December-end.
Having already raised equity funding of about Rs 24,000 crore, the cash-strapped telco is also in talks with a consortium of banks to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore and additional non-fund-based facilities of up to Rs 10,000 crore, the company had said previously.
“We remain engaged with lenders to secure debt financing to support our broader capex plans of Rs 50,000–55,000 crore,” Moondra added.
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