At 8 PM on the closing day on Wednesday, the issue had received cumulative bids on the Bombay and National stock exchanges for 16,01,67,80,185 shares compared with the 19,999,830,911 shares on offer, data on the exchange websites showed. The issue had received bids for 4,92,30,11,512 shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange and 11,09,37,68,673 on National Stock Exchange.
The rights issue, the largest ever by any company in the country, was priced at Rs12.50 a share and had opened on April 10. Vodafone Idea shares closed 0.9% higher at Rs17.20 on the BSE Wednesday.
Vodafone Idea has said that its promoter shareholders — Vodafone group and Aditya Birla Group– will participate for an amount of up to Rs 20,000 crore in the Issue, instead of the previously announced amount of up to Rs 18,250 crore, in which Vodafone was to subscribe to shares worth Rs11,000 crore, with its partner taking in the rest. The company has also said that its promoters will subscribe to any of the unsubscribed portions.
Malaysia’s Axiata Group Berhad has already decided not to participate in the rights issue, renouncing its shares entitlement in favour of investors through transactions on the BSE, reducing its stake in the company from 8.1% to roughly 2.6%.
The promoters have already taken SEBI approval to take their holding in VIL up to 90% post the rights issue – if required – but would need to bring it down to 75% or below to conform with capital market rules. The promoters currently hold 71.33% in VIL.
The fund raising is being done as the industry bleeds amid a massive disruption caused by the entry of Reliance Jio over two years back. Vodafone Idea, whose losses widened to over Rs5,000 crore in the October-December quarter with debt at Rs114,760 crore at December end – plans to use most of the funds – nearly Rs19,000 crore – to repay debt, including spectrum payments, while the rest would be for general corporate expenses.
The competition and financial stress forced Vodafone India and Idea Cellular – then India’s No. 2 and 3 ranked telcos – to merge late August last year to create India’s largest telco.
