Vodafone Idea on Wednesday said the company’s board will meet on April 6 to consider and approve the proposal for issuing equity shares or convertible securities on a preferential basis.
The announcement from the company has come after it received approval from the shareholders to raise Rs 20,000 crore.
Last month, the company’s board had approved a total fundraise of Rs 45,000 crore, of which Rs 25,000 is to be raised through debt instruments. The Aditya Birla Group has committed to infuse Rs 2,000 crore into Vodafone Idea.
The company also recently issued equity shares to its vendor American Tower Company (ATC) through conversion of optionally convertible debentures (OCDs) worth Rs 1,440 crore. ATC now holds 2.87% stake in Vodafone Idea.
Vodafone Idea’s net loss for the October-December quarter narrowed to Rs 6,986 crore from Rs 8,738 crore in the preceding quarter. Revenue from operations rose 0.5% year-on-year, owing to improvement in subscriber mix, 4G subscriber additions and increase in entry level tariffs.
Analysts at brokerage house Morgan Stanley observed that any potential large fundraising by the telecom operator will further enhance the possibility of current market structure prevailing and would lower the probability of any imminent consolidation in the industry.