Vodafone Group says no to infuse new equity in Voda Idea

Vodafone Group has maintained its stance that it will not invest any fresh equity into Vodafone Idea .
“ Our position has not changed. Vodafone Group does not intend to put any new equity into Vodafone Idea,” said the UK headquartered telecom Group in an email statement to ET.

This comes on the back of the Indian telco’s announcement to raise funds of upto Rs 25,000 crore via a mix of debt and equity instruments in one or more tranches, which will be used to pay statutory dues and invest in network operations to take rivals.

Vodafone Group though is expected to infuse around Rs 6,600 crore as per pre-agreed merger terms. The British telco has already put in over Rs 1,800 crore under this arrangement, of a total corpus of Rs8,400 crore.

The telco needs funds to pay its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of Rs 50,400 crore to the government . It can also look forward to income tax refunds, around Rs1600 crore from VIL's stake sale in the Indus Towers-Bharti Infratel merged entity and the sale of its fibre and data centre, which is estimated to generate $1.5-2.1 billion.

Currently, Vodafone Group holds 44.39% in the telco, with the Aditya Birla Group owing 27.66%. The company is laden with a debt of Rs 1.7 lakh crore, including statutory dues.