Vi loan delayed by lenders; services safe

IANS Debt-ridden telecom operator Vodafone Idea 's long-pending loan from the SBI-led consortium is still taking longer than anticipated because of the involvement of several lenders in the process, a top official of the company said on Friday. During the company's earnings call, Vodafone Idea (Vi) CEO Abhijit Kishore said the company has secured funds from private and foreign banks which are sufficient to maintain its capex momentum. "The involvement of multiple lenders has resulted in the overall process taking a little longer than what we had earlier anticipated, but we remain confident in our engagement with the consortium," Kishore said. Vi has announced a Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 55,000 crore capex plan by 2027 to upgrade its network and maintain competitiveness in the market. The company has partially funded the capex through rights issues, support from promoters and liquidity generated following relief from the government for its statutory dues. Live Events Vi is in talks with the SBI-led consortium to raise a loan and fund the major part of its capex plan. "Meanwhile, the incremental funding secured in H1 (first half) FY27 from the Indian private bank and foreign bank (is) sufficient to maintain our capex momentum," Kishore said. The company is seeking Rs 25,000 crore of funds and Rs 10,000 crore of non-funded facilities. The company also said its services will not be disrupted in the eight circles where its spectrum comes up for renewal in December, even though auction dates have not been announced. Kishore, during the earnings call, said that the company has conveyed its interest in continuing with the spectrum and that the norm is for operators to continue until auctions are held. Vodafone Idea has secured total funding of over Rs 10,500 crore till the first half of FY27, including warrants and fund and non-fund-based facilities, of which over Rs 4,000 crore of incremental bank funding was arranged in the second quarter. The company is in talks with three sets of lenders: the public sector bank consortium led by SBI , Indian private banks and foreign banks for external commercial borrowings, he said. Kishore said the telco does not need the entire amount in one go and will draw down as and when required. He said the talks with public sector banks were very close to closure. Vodafone Idea's customer ARPU (average revenue per user) rose 10 per cent to Rs 198 in Q2 FY27 from Rs 180 in Q2 FY26, primarily supported by customer upgrades . Kishore said ARPU continues to improve sequentially, though the organic growth was more moderate than in prior quarters, mainly due to the seasonal nature of the second quarter. The company expects ARPU growth to return to the levels of previous quarters from the next quarter, he said. On tariffs, Kishore said the company would be keen to participate in a structural tariff increase, which the industry needs. Vodafone Idea on Thursday reported a widening of consolidated net loss to Rs 5,975 crore for the July-September quarter, mainly due to an exceptional loss of Rs 462 crore. The company posted a net loss of Rs 5,524 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing. The reported loss was higher due to the "adverse impact of mark-to-market of treasury assets", it added. Vodafone Idea's revenue from operations rose 6.2 per cent to Rs 11,884 crore from Rs 11,195 crore in Q2 FY26. Vodafone Idea booked an exceptional loss of Rs 462 crore in the quarter on remeasurement of 328 crore of its shares earmarked by Vodafone Group entities for a period of five years, according to the filing. It had recorded a gain of Rs 1,816 crore on these shares in the previous quarter. Adjusted for exceptional items, the loss was lower at Rs 5,513 crore compared to Rs 5,562 crore in Q2 FY26, the company said. Chief Financial Officer Tejas Mehta said the company's bank debt stood at Rs 943 crore as of September 30, while free cash and bank balance were Rs 5,470 crore. "As of today, our old legacy bank debt has been fully repaid. The current drawdowns now represent incremental funding secured by the company," Mehta said. He said the company has paid spectrum dues of over Rs 4,300 crore that were due in October. With this, it has paid over Rs 6,000 crore against spectrum obligations of about Rs 7,000 crore due in FY27. Vodafone Idea's capex more than doubled sequentially to Rs 3,946 crore in the September quarter. It has placed capex orders worth over Rs 13,200 crore against its three-year capex guidance of Rs 45,000 crore. The company added nearly 9,000 new broadband towers in the quarter, taking the total to close to 2.28 lakh, Kishore said. It remains on track to conclude its 4G network rollout by FY28, and its 5G services are now available in 400 cities and towns. Vodafone Idea's subscriber base rose to 19.44 crore at the end of the second quarter of FY27 from 19.31 crore in the previous quarter. It stood at 19.67 crore a year ago. The company closed the quarter with 131.0 million 4G/5G subscribers, up from 127.8 million in the same period last year. Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel ) Read More News on vodafone idea sbi Vodafone Idea debt capex plan ARPU growth spectrum renewal telecom operator customer upgrades (Catch all the Business News , Breaking News and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times .) 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