Vodafone Idea to get Rs 4,500 cr funds from Voda, Aditya Birla; looks to raise another Rs 10,000 cr later

Vodafone Idea promoters Vodafone Plc and Aditya Birla Group will invest up to Rs 4,500 crore in the company through a preferential share issue. Additionally, the company is looking at raising Rs 10,000 crore by issuing shares to investors through private placement or any other mode of investment, Vodafone Idea said in a filing to stock exchanges. Of the planned Rs 4,500 crore investment by promoters, Vodafone Group is expected to contribute a larger share of around Rs 3,000 crore while the remaining will be done by Aditya Birla Group.

Earlier last year, Vodafone Idea CEO Ravinder Takkar had said the promoters would participate in the fund raise, after the government announced a telecom revival package. Vodafone Idea held a board meeting today to discuss the funding. The company said that it would issue upto 3,38,34,58,645 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each at an issue price of Rs 13.30 per equity share (including a premium of Rs 3.30 per equity share), which is at a 10% premium to the floor price of Rs 12.08 per SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, for an aggregate consideration of upto Rs 4,500 crore to Euro Pacific Securities and Prime Metals (Vodafone Group entities) and Oriana Investments (Aditya Birla Group entity) on a preferential basis.

It would look at raising Rs 10,000 crore by way of private placement, qualified institutions placement or through any other permissible mode in one or more tranches.

Recently, Vodafone Group had sold 63.6 million primary shares in Indus Towers, representing 2.4% of Indus’ outstanding share capital, at Rs 226.84 a share in a block deal. The UK-based group raised around Rs 1,443-1,469 crore through the sale. Apart from that, Bharti Airtel has entered into an arrangement with Vodafone Group to buy the latter’s 4.7% stake in Indus Towers which could be worth Rs 2,730-2,885 crore.