Ringtone is fading by the minute
Financial Express Mumbai|September 18, 2023
THREE YEARS HAVE gone by since cash-strapped Vodafone Idea's (Vi) board decided it would mop up some 25,000 crore to shore up the business.
Ringtone is fading by the minute

The markets would like to believe there's an investment in the offing -- the stock has put on nearly 40% over the past month hitting a 52-week high of ₹12 on September 14. They're probably banking on CEO Akshaya Moondra's comments last month that discussions with multiple investors for both equity and equity-linked investments had progressed to the level of due diligence and were expected to conclude in the December quarter.

So far though there's nothing to show the capital infusion being talked about will come through anytime soon into the beleaguered telco. There are no signs either of the government lowering the net present value (NPV) of Vi's dues. In the last three years, the promoters have brought in 5,000 crore with a commitment to put in another 2,000 crore.

However, the 25,000 crore or even twice that sum might not be enough to put the telco back on track. Not having been able to upgrade its network, Vi has lost over 54 million subscribers in the 27 months to June and is left with 230 million subscribers; its revenue market share is a paltry 20.1%, way behind Bharti Airtel's 32.7% and Reliance Jio's 38.4%. And it hasn't been able to get its 5G take off. Jio spends about 15,000-16,000 crore a quarter on capex while Bharti invests about 7,500 crore.Vi spends barely ₹500 crore.

At the very least, therefore, Vi needs about 50,000 crore to be able to stabilise the operations and more than 1 trillion to stay in the game.

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