India’s third-largest telecom company (following Jio and Airtel) – Vodafone Idea (Vi) – has now received a much needed $222 million financial boost. The company has raised approximately ₹1,910 crore by issuing new shares through a preferential allotment. These shares were allocated to certain entities associated with its parent company, Vodafone Group Plc. The development was first reported by Bloomberg, citing stock exchange filing.
This comes days after UK-based Vodafone Group cleared dues of around ₹11,650 crore (~£1.09 billion) that it raised against shares of Vodafone Idea. In the latest fundraise, Vi allotted 1.69 billion shares at ₹11.28 each to Omega Telecom Holdings Pvt. and Usha Martin Telematics Ltd. On Monday (6 January), Vi held an extraordinary general meeting to seek shareholder approval for the same.
Days before this, Vodafone Idea CEO Akshay Moondra made some exciting announcements, indicating the revival efforts from the telecom operator. The company is preparing for a phased rollout of 5G. Not only that, but the telecom operator is also launching tailored ‘first-of-their-kind tariff plans’ for customers in 2025.
Formed on 31 August 2018 by the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, Vi has not reported an annual profit till now. However, last year in September, the company signed a major $3.6 billion (~ ₹30,000 crore) deal with global telecom equipment makers Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung. Under this deal, these companies will supply network equipment over three years to the telco. This move is said to be part of Vi’s total capital expenditure target of $6.6 billion for the upcoming three years.
Vodafone Idea – which is a clear laggard in India’s fiercely competitive telecom sector, and is behind its competitors Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. and Bharti Airtel Ltd. – added more than 48,000 sites in 2024, reaching a total capacity of 58,000 sites in the country.
Reliance Jio’s subscriber base stood at around 463.7 million as of September 2024. Bharti Airtel follows with 383.4 million subscribers, while Vodafone Idea has 212.4 million subscribers for the same period. The stock of Vodafone Idea (today closed at ₹7.91) has fallen by nearly 55% over the past year. However, in terms of ARPU, which translates to revenue per user, Airtel has been leading the space for some time now.
Interestingly, in September 2024, Jio lost market share, while Airtel, Vi, and BSNL gained a bit, but at its expense. In terms of revenue, Vodafone Idea saw a growth in the second quarter of FY 2025, reaching ₹10,932.2 crore, up from ₹10,716.3 crore in the same quarter last year.
