Vodafone Idea shareholders approve issuance of Rs 1,600 crore OCD to ATC

A special resolution to this effect was approved at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of vodafone idea on Saturday.

“The following items of business set out in the notice dated January 31, 2023 were transacted at the EGM…Issue of securities on preferential basis,” the company said in a statement. BSE filing.

As per the results of the voting, a total of 99.99 per cent votes were in favor of the resolution, which pertained to issue of optionally convertible debentures 1,600 crore to American Tower Corp.

The telco had earlier said that these funds would be used to pay dues to ATC India under the master lease agreement and for general corporate purposes to the extent of the balance.

The company has reported a widening of its consolidated loss 7,990 crore for the third quarter ending December 31, 2022.

However, Vodafone Idea’s (VIL) consolidated revenue from operations grew by 9.29 per cent 10,620.6 crore to 9,717.3 crore in the December 2021 quarter.

“On a year-on-year basis, revenue growth was strong at 9.3 per cent driven by improved subscriber base, tariff intervention and 4G subscriber growth,” the company said in a statement.

Government changed during the quarter 16,133 crore spectrum auction installments and interest related to deferment of AGR dues into equity, and now holds around 33 per cent stake in the company.

“Separately, our Board has approved the issue of Optionally Convertible Debentures 16 billion to ATC India. With these positive developments, we are engaged with our lenders to raise further debt funds, as well as equity or equity linked funds with other parties, to make the investments required for network expansion and 5G rollout,” VIL CEO Akshay Mundra had said earlier.

VIL’s average revenue per user, a key performance indicator of telecom operators, improved by 17.4 per cent on a year-on-year basis. 135 from during the December 2022 quarter 115 a year ago owing to the tariff hike and migration of subscribers to unlimited tariff plans.

The company’s total subscriber base declined to 22.86 crore during the reported quarter from 23.44 crore in the September 2022 quarter.

VIL said that its 4G customer base continues to grow and with the addition of one million 4G customers during the quarter, the company’s 4G customer base stood at 12.16 crore.

“We continue to see high data usage per broadband customer at approximately 15.1 GB per month, with total data traffic seeing a sequential increase of 0.8 percent.” the company said.