Leverage results from using borrowed money, and a highly leveraged company is one with more debt than equity. “The Vodafone-Idea merged company will find itself constrained to invest in the business on account of high leverage,” Credit Suisse said in a note seen by ET<\/strong>.
Brokerage JM Financial, in turn, expects the Vodafone-Idea combined entity to “start on a weaker-than-expected wicket with a net debt estimated at ₹1,150 billion (₹1.15-lakh crore) on Day 1”, especially with Idea Cellular<\/a>’s financials “continuing to deteriorate sharply” ahead of its merger with Vodafone<\/a> India that is nearing completion.
Kumar Birla-led Idea on Monday reported a ₹263.6 crore net profit in the June quarter, largely on the strength of a one-time exceptional gain from sale of its captive towers business to American Tower Corp. Without the tower arm sale proceeds, the number 3 telco would have suffered a huge net loss, given the significant deterioration in its operating performance, reflected in the 34.5% sequential fall in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation & amortization (Ebitda) to ₹659.5 crore in the April-June quarter, analysts said.Shares of Idea fell over 6% to close at ₹54.90 on the BSE on Tuesday, a day after the telco reported a weak operational performance in the quarter ended June.
Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said “the merged entity would be vulnerable to market share losses as both Jio and Bharti are ahead of Vodafone and Idea in data investment, and are likely to poach their customers”.
Brokerage JP Morgan said “both Idea and Vodafone India have demonstrated the archetypal conservative behaviour of two debt-stressed firms ahead of a significant merger”.
Analysts estimate the merged entity’s immediate incremental funding needs at ₹10,000 crore besides debt repayment commitments.
“Though funded for a peak competitive intensity, the merged company’s gearing, estimated at 6.6 times Ebitda even by FY21, will still be out of hand and leaves little headroom for any further operating income (read: Ebitda) decline,” CLSA said in a note.
Jefferies said the capex levels of the Vodafone-Idea merged entity would have to increase substantially to match the (network) capacity generation of peers (read: Airtel and Jio).
Idea’s modest capex at Rs 980 crore in the April-June period is way below Airtel’s Rs 8,200 crore and Jio’s Rs 17,000 crore capex spends in the just-ended quarter.
“With Idea and Vodafone losing postpaid subscribers, we expect blended ARPU to see a sharper fall,” the foreign brokerage said.
Credit Suisse said a particularly worrisome trend before the merger closure is Idea’s stagnant 3G\/4G subscriber base, with the telecom arm of the Aditya Birla Group<\/a> reporting a paltry 1.1 million net increase on-quarter, which is way below “a monthly run-rate of 3 million (adds) for Bharti Airtel<\/a> and 9 million for Jio”.
In the immediate term, J P Morgan said “it is essential for Idea to get its fair share of subscribers to upgrade to 4G to improve headline ARPUs if overall industry<\/a> pricing does not improve.
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