The Rs 18,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO) of Vodafone Idea (VIL) was subscribed more than six times on the final day though retail investors did not show great enthusiasm for the stock.

The issue was subscribed by 6.36 times as investors bid for 80,11,82,98,458 shares against 12,60,00,00,001 shares on offer.

Qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) scrambled to pick up the shares on offer and that category was subscribed by 17.56 times. These investors bid for 63,21,05,38,776 shares against 3,60,00,00,001 on offer.

On the other hand, the portion reserved for non-institutional investors (NIIs) was subscribed 4.13 times as they bid for 11,14,45,35,842 shares against 2,70,00,00,000 shares reserved for the category.

Retail investors were not gung-ho over the offer as they bid for 5,76,78,57,700 shares against 6,30,00,00,000 shares on offer, indicating that the portion was only subscribed by 0.92 times.

The telco has already raised Rs 5400 crore from anchor investors. The institutional investors who were allotted shares included Rajiv Jain-led GQG Partners, Australian Super, Fidelity, Troo Capital, UBS Fund Management, The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Redwheel Fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, HDFC Mutual Fund, Quant Mutual Fund, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, and Jupiter Fund Management.

The FPO came in the price band of Rs 10-11 per share.

Shares of VIL closed 0.23 per cent lower on Monday at Rs 12.89 on the BSE after hitting an intra-day high of Rs 13.03. The upper price band of Rs 11, therefore, works out to a discount of nearly 15 per cent to Monday’s closing price.

Market circles had said investors have been selling shares in the secondary market to subscribe to the FPO.

Vodafone Idea, which is the country’s third largest telco, proposes to utilise the net proceeds from the fresh issue of equity shares to buy equipment worth Rs 12,750 crore that will enable it to expand its network infrastructure. The company plans to beef up its 4G network and set up a 5G network like its rivals.

A sum of Rs 2175 crore will be also utilised to pay certain deferred payments for spectrum to the DoT and the GST thereon. The balance amount will be used for general corporate purposes.

The company plans to raise another Rs 25,000 crore in the form of bank debt.