Vodafone Idea may miss December deadline for fundraise
Vodafone Idea (Vi) may miss the December deadline to raise fresh funding as the debt-laden telecom operator has yet to finalise the terms of the potential deal with investors, officials aware of the discussions told ET. The company is, however, hopeful of closing the deal in the current quarter.
Separately, the telco is in talks with the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of the US to raise capital for procuring 5G network equipment from American companies including Mavenir.
According to the officials cited above, Vi continues to be in discussions with the potential investors, including in the US, to raise fresh capital by issuing equity and equity-linked instruments.
The telco has said that bank lending will follow soon after the equity fundraising is finalised.
Further delays in securing fresh funding could cripple Vi's expansion plans, particularly the rollout of its 5G services, and capture market share lost to rivals who have already launched 5G networks.
ET had reported earlier that the company was holding talks with investors such as US private equity group, Apollo Global Management.
Vi chief executive Akshaya Moondra had earlier said that the discussions will close in the ongoing October-December quarter.
The telco had earlier announced that it was looking to raise about Rs 20,000 crore from a mix of debt and equity but lately, the company has refrained from giving an update on its fundraising plans.
In a statement to ET, the telco said the funding talks were delinked from its Open-RAN trials with US firms and the funding support discussions with the US EXIM Bank.
«Open-RAN (O-RAN) trials with the US companies are being explored with an eye on deployment in the future. Funding is completely independent, and
