The board of beleaguered telco Vodafone Idea (Vi) has approved another round of fund raise amounting to Rs 20,000 crore, while the operator’s net loss widened sequentially in the March quarter.
In an exchange filing late on Friday night, Vi informed the exchanges that subject to shareholder approval and/or other requisite regulatory/statutory approvals, the firm can look to raise an additional Rs 20,000 crore in one or more tranches.
The fundraise can be done through further public offer or private placement (including qualified institutions placement) or through any other permissible mode including securities convertible into equity shares, global depository receipts, American depository receipts or bonds including foreign currency convertible bonds, the telco said.
“The Board has authorised the capital raising committee to evaluate and decide the potential route of fund raising, including all related matters,” Vi added in the exchange filing.
Fundraising has become increasingly crucial for the struggling telco as its recent appeals to the government, and to the Supreme Court for relief on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues and spectrum liabilities were turned down. The telco’s Rs 55,000 crore capex plan for network upgradation and effective 5G launch hangs in the balance, as it grapples with liquidity constraints.
“The group’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on support from the DoT on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) matter, successfully arranging funding and generation of cash flow from its operations that it needs to settle its liabilities as they fall due,” the firm’s auditor SR Batliboy and associates observed in the quarterly earnings filing to the exchanges.
Vi net loss widened sequentially in the March quarter by Rs 566.8 crore, as revenue declined by more than Rs 100 crore, and the telco continued to bleed customers.
Loss for the fiscal fourth quarter came in at Rs 7,166.1 crore as compared to Rs 6,609.3 crore in the prior three months of the fiscal. Quarterly loss exceeded Bloomberg estimates of Rs 7,147.01 crore.
Revenue for the quarter came in at Rs 11,013.5 crore, registering a 0.93% sequential decline (Q3: Rs 11,117.3 crore), and missing Bloomberg estimates of Rs 11,107.9 crore.
Customer base of the cash-strapped telco further shrunk to 198.2 million in the quarter ended March 31, 2025 from 199.8 million in the December quarter, and blended churn for the quarter came in at 4.1% (Q3: 4.5%).
The telco continued to bleed data customers (those on services across 2G to 5G) and ended Q4 with 134.1 million data against 134.2 million in Q3.
ARPU – Average revenue per user (not including enterprise customers) continued to rise sequentially at Rs 175, which is 1.16% higher than the preceding quarter’s ARPU of Rs 73, showing slowdown in the flowthroughs of the July 2024 tariff hikes. Vi’s postpaid customer base grew quarter on quarter (q-o-q) to 25.6 million, as against 25.2 million in the December quarter.
Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) came in 1.12% lower than the preceding quarter at Rs 4,659.7 crore (Q3: Rs 4,712.4 crore), slightly ahead of Bloomberg estimates of Rs 4,654.08 crore.
“This has been a turnaround quarter for us, marked by the highest average daily revenue in the past 5 years and a significant reduction in subscriber loss. Early indicators show improvement across key business metrics and with our ongoing investments, we are well placed to effectively participate in the growth opportunity offered by the industry,” Akshaya Moondra, CEO, Vi said.
He added that the firm’s management continues to engage with lenders for debt financing, aligning with the telco’s planned network expansion investment of Rs 50,000 core–Rs 55,000 crore over a three-year period. He also welcomed the government’s decision to convert AGR and spectrum liability amounting to Rs 36,950 crore into equity.
Its efforts towards strengthening the 4G network, and the launch of commercial 5G in March resulted in a slight improvement in 4G/5G subscriber base – 0.4 million sequentially. The firm is yet to declare its 5G subscriber base, though it said that nearly 64% of its total consumer base is now on its 4G or 5G network.
“Our expansion efforts are underway to offer 5G services in the key geographies of all 17 circles where we have 5G spectrum by August 2025,” Moondra said.
Capex spend for Q4FY25 was Rs 4,230 crore as against Rs 3,210 crore in Q32FY25. The capex for the full fiscal came in at Rs 9,570 crore lower than the firm’s full fiscal guidance of Rs 10,000 crore.
Vi’s debt from banks and financial institutions shrunk Rs 1,710 crore year on year (y-o-y) at Rs 2,330 crore (March ’24 end: Rs 4,040 crore). The cash and bank balance as on March 31, 2025 was Rs 99,300 crore, as compared to Rs 12,090 crore at the end of Q3.
The payment obligations to the government stood at Rs 1.94 lakh crore as of March 31, 2025 which includes deferred payment obligation towards spectrum payable over the years till FY 2044 and AGR (including interest accrued but not due) payable over the years till FY 2031.
The AGR instalment on which moratorium was taken under the 2021 telecom reforms package amounting to Rs 16,428 crore is payable in FY26, as is a payment of Rs 2,538.5 crore towards deferred spectrum dues, the firm said.
The introduction of 5G services has lifted the firm’s data consumption metrics as overall consumption grew 5% sequentially to 6.02 billion GB and per capita data usage grew to 16.2 GB.
Total minutes of use came in at 357 billion (Q3: 360 billion) and average minutes of use per customer showed marginal increase to 598 minutes from 593 minutes in the previous quarter.