Vodafone Group Plc (Vodafone), the British telecom firm, on Friday said it has sold its entire stake in Indus Towers for ₹ 2,800 crore.
The telco disclosed that it has sold 7.92 crore, or 3 per cent stake, in Indus Towers and used ₹890 crore from the proceeds to clear lenders dues.
“Vodafone Group Plc announces that it has successfully completed the placing of its remaining 79.2 million shares in Indus Towers Limited (Indus), representing 3 per cent of Indus’ outstanding share capital, through an accelerated book build offering on 5 December, 2024,” the company.
Vodafone held the stake through its indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries, Omega Telecom Holdings Pvt Ltdand Usha Martin Telematics Ltd.
“Residual proceeds of ₹19.1 billion ($225 million) have been used to acquire 1.7 billion equity shares in Vodafone Idea Ltd through a preferential allotment of shares (a capital raise), increasing Vodafone’s shareholding in Vi (Vodafone Idea) to 24.39 per cent (from 22.56 per cent),” it added.
Vodafone Idea in turn used the proceeds from the capital raise (from Vodafone) to pay outstanding Master Service Agreement (MSA) dues to Indus.
“Following this, Vodafone’s obligations to Indus under the security arrangements have now been satisfied in full,” Vodafone said.
In December last year, Vodafone had announced that it would exit Indus Towers by selling the residual three per cent stake.
Shares of Indus Towers on Friday ended 2.90 per cent lower at ₹320.25 on the BSE.