Mumbai: Vodafone Idea<\/a>’s talks with lenders for raising funds have picked up pace with the conversion of accrued interest into government equity, the struggling telco’s chief executive Akshaya Moondra<\/a> said on Wednesday.
Vi will use the funds for 4G network expansion and 5G rollouts, he said during the company’s analyst call to discuss the fiscal third quarter results.
“I will not be able to give the amount of funding (we are looking to raise). We have shared the business plan with the bank, which includes the complete current situation of where we stand and the funding required for us to gradually move to a regular vendor payment cycle and make the necessary investments,” Moondra said.
He, however, did not mention any update on the timeline for the said fund raise, or give any indication on whether and how much funds the promoters – UK’s Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group<\/a> – will infuse in the cash-strapped telco, when asked by analysts.
Moondra conceded that fund-raising conversations with lenders were stalled before the government approved conversion of Rs 16,133.18 crore of interest dues into equity.
Vi reported a net loss of Rs 7,990 crore for the third quarter ended December on the back of high customer churn and increased finance and operational costs. It lost 5.8 million subscribers in the quarter to end up with 228.6 million customers at December end, though it added one million 4G subscribers. The telco’s net debt stood at Rs 2.22 lakh crore at the end of the quarter with cash balance at Rs 160 crore.
The net debt though would reduce by the interest dues converted into government equity, Moondra said.
Its capex for the December quarter was Rs 750 crore.
On Vi’s 5G rollout plans, Moondra did not give any concrete timeline but said the funds raised will be directed towards 5G rollout “in geographies that matter” so that the telco can compete with peers Bharti Airtel<\/a> and Reliance Jio<\/a> as early as possible.
Jio and Airtel<\/a> have almost a half-year head start over Vi in terms of 5G rollout since both started the phased launch of their 5G services pan-India in October 2022 and have so far covered more than 300 markets.
“We have the advantage of having the latest 4G equipment and technologies which can be upgraded to 5G,” Moondra said. “5G rollout is part of our overall capex plan and we continue to work towards rolling out 5G for our consumers, which can be executed quickly once funding is in place.”
He said the telco is in advanced stages of discussion with various network vendors to finalise its 5G rollout strategy.
Vi currently has active 5G clusters in Delhi and Pune where it is partnering with various OEMs to test compatibility of available 5G handsets. It had announced one such partnership with Motorola earlier this month.
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