The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has granted approval to Vodafone Idea to hive off its fibre assets into a separate entity named Vodafone Towers. The move to hive off the fibre business was to achieve operational efficiency and also monetisation of the assets. As per estimates, around 1.56 lakh route kilometre of fibre assets owned by the company are worth around Rs 15,000 crore.

Sectoral regulator Trai is likely to seek a clarification from incumbent operators — Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel — regarding the variation in the subscriber data. Both the operators share one set of subscriber numbers with Trai and another with investors. The numbers shared by Reliance Jio, however, do not differ.

Sources in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) told FE they are aware of the mismatch and will soon seek a clarification from the operators.

The wireless subscriber base in the country declined by 1.85% in March — after nearly a year of sustained growth — primarily because of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which together lost over 29 million customers during the month as a result of implementation of minimum recharge plans. The wireless subscriber base declined to 1,161.81 million at the end of March from 1,183.68 million at the end of February. The wireless subscriber base had last declined in April last year when there was a net deduction of 58.34 million subscribers from the telecom industry.

Vodafone Idea will complete the elimination of low Arpu (average realisation per user) subscribers who are paying below Rs 35 recharge plan by May end.

According to the company’s management, the telco rolled out the minimum recharge plan for most of the country in December, however, certain set of customers in some markets may not have come into the new tariff fold because of various regulatory requirements.

Vodafone Idea on Monday narrowed its consolidated net loss during the January-March quarter at Rs 4,882 crore on the back of lower operating costs due to realisation of merger synergies. However, it was still wider than the Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 4,721 crore.

The firm had reported a net loss of Rs 5,004.6 crore at the end of December quarter, and a net loss of about Rs 4,974 crore in the preceding September quarter.

MUMBAI: India’s largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd is planning to raise money through a private infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) of its fibre assets, two people aware of the development said. A similar plan is being considered by rival Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

Vodafone Idea shares hit a new low of Rs 13.65, down 12 per cent on Wednesday, declining 17 per cent in past two trading days on the BSE, on back of two-fold jump in trading volumes.

The stock of Aditya Birla Group Company fell below its previous low of 14.95 hit on April 4, 2019 in intra-day trade. A combined 135 million shares have changed hands till 11:23 am; as compared to an average 48 million shares, that were traded daily in past two weeks on the BSE and NSE.

Promoters of Vodafone Idea contributed Rs 17,920 crore to its Rs 25,000 crore rights issue compared to their commitment of Rs 18,250 crore following over-subscription of the scheme, the company said Sunday.

With this contribution, the promoters’ stake in the country’s largest telecom operator increased marginally to 71.57 per cent from 71.33 per cent.

Vodafone Idea has signed a multi-million dollar five-year deal with IBM for cloud-based digital platform that will allow the telco to deliver an enhanced customer experience to its over 387 million users.

Both Vodafone and Idea Cellular had been partners of IBM prior to their merger and now the deal has been renewed for five years with the merged entity.

Vodafone Idea Ltd., India’s largest telecom operator by subscriber base, on Thursday said its rights issue was oversubscribed, with its promoters committing ₹18,250 crore.

According to a BloombergQuint report, the issue received bids worth ₹26,950 crore compared with ₹25,000 crore on offer.

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