Vodafone Idea (VI) has sought the release of bank guarantees of Rs 15,000 crore bank guarantees, being held up with DOT against its gross revenue dues. It has also sought freezing of the AGR dues on the day of the Supreme Court judgment of Oct 24, 2019. The telecom’s contention is that since the government’s relief package has allowed the company to pay its AGR dues after 4 years, there was no holding onto the bank guarantees, said an executive.
It has also told DOT that its potential vendors were seeking these finer details by March-end. A board meeting of VI is scheduled on March 3, 2022. In their financial year ending on March 31st, 2021, Vodafone generated total revenue of 43.81 billion euros. This was a one billion euro decrease compared to the previous year, but a slight increase compared to 2019 when they generated just under 43.7 billion euros.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd said on Friday it agreed to buy Vodafone Group Plc's 4.7% stake in India's largest cell tower firm Indus Towers Ltd.
Airtel said it has entered into an agreement with Vodafone to buy a 2.4 % stake in Indus Towers on the principal condition that the amount paid shall be inducted by Vodafone as fresh equity in Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) and simultaneously remitted to Indus Towers to clear VIL’s outstanding dues.
The Sunil Mittal-led firm said the purchase would be at an attractive price representing a significant discount typically available for such large block transactions.
The stability and sustenance of a specialised and strong infrastructure company like Indus Towers is vital for a continued strong provision of co-location services including the support to rollout 5G. Such stability warrants a strong and stable shareholding structure to ensure financial stability and flexibility to respond to evolving needs of telecom operators added the telco. Vi is also considering the sale of overseas convertible funds to raise $750 million to $1 million at the earliest.
The operator has appointed SBI capital markets to negotiate to look into the restructuring of the loans worth Rs 20,000 to 23,000 crore due to be repaid within the next 4 years.