Vodafone Idea, which faces an uphill task of meeting the Supreme Court verdict on adjusted gross revenues (AGR), will consider various fund raising options at a board meet on September 4.
In a late evening filing with the stock exchanges on Tuesday, the telco said the board at the meeting will “consider and evaluate proposals to raise funds in one or more tranches by way of a public issue, preferential allotment, private placement, including a qualified institutions placement, or through any other permissible mode and/or combination thereof...by way of issue of equity shares or by way of issue of any instruments’’.
The board will also consider raising funds through securities, including securities convertible into equity shares, global depository receipts, American depository receipts, or bonds, including foreign currency convertible bonds, convertible debentures, warrants. Non-convertible debentures, including non-convertible debentures, along with warrants, which may or may not be listed are the other options.
On Tuesday, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra gave telecom players 10 years to pay their balance AGR dues. The apex court said that the operators shall make the payment of 10 per cent of the total dues by March 31, 2021, and the rest has to be paid in yearly instalments starting April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2031.
Vodafone Idea has dues of around Rs 58,254 crore of which it has paid Rs 3,500 crore.
The company is selling its entire stake in Indus Towers for Rs 4,000 crore. However, it will have to make a pre-payment of Rs 2,400 crore to the Indus Tower-Bharti Infratel merged entity. The company will thus get around Rs 1,600 crore from the stake sale in the tower firm.
On Wednesday, shares of Vodafone Idea spurted 11.47 per cent on the proposed fund raising announcement.
“If at all its chances of surviving have increased,” tweeted investment adviser Sandip Sabharwal.
“We await clarity from the companies on whether the 10 per cent upfront payment can be adjusted against amounts already paid or if an additional 10 per cent needs to be paid by March 2021. If it is the former, then neither company may need to make any additional payment till March 2022,” analysts at Citi said in a note.
