Will raise funds soon: Vodafone Idea MD

MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: Vodafone Idea (Vi) managing director Ravinder Takkar said the telco expects to raise funds shortly and doesn’t need a Plan B just yet, expressing confidence that adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues will be reduced.

Low tariffs and the lack of a floor price for them remain the biggest hurdles to improvement in the health of the telecom sector, he said on an earnings call Friday. Vodafone Idea can’t raise tariffs unilaterally, he said.

“I don’t think at this point, a Plan B for funding is needed. We have a plan, we are engaged with investors, we expect this to take place. I don’t think we will reach that point (of Plan B),” Takkar said.

Plea in SC Over AGR Math
The company is “confident that funding will take place in the coming weeks.”

Takkar was referring to the ₹25,000 crore fundraising plan announced last September which, Vi has said, hasn’t materialised despite six months of talks, with investors wary about the viability of the industry. He played down the importance of high adjusted gross revenue dues — about ₹58,400 crore — that it needs to pay the telecom department in getting funds.

“I would say that while this (AGR dues) is an important element, I do not believe that this is a very big hurdle today in the minds of investors who are engaging with us on fundraising,” Takkar told analysts.

‘Errors & Omissions’
“These are arithmetic errors and omissions — we are very confident that it is not the intent of the government, DoT, to make us pay for these types of errors,” Takkar said. “So, we are very confident that the Supreme Court will allow the DoT to make adjustments based on those errors and omissions that were done in the first round of calculations of the AGR dues.”