Vodafone Idea's CEO, Akshaya Moondra, said that the company is not in discussions with the Indian government regarding any of the latter's plans to offload its stake in the telecom operator to sovereign funds.
“We have had no communication from the government and to that extent, we have to say that government as a public shareholder, they are free to make decisions with reference to their investments. That is an independent subject,” Moondra said while responding to an analyst’s query on media reports suggesting the government’s plans to offload stake.
Last week, the Financial Express reported that the government was exploring sovereign wealth funds' interest in acquiring its 23.8 percent stake in the company. It mentioned that Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Qatar Investment Authority, and Singapore’s Temasek had been approached, though the government's efforts are still very early.
“The only thing I would add to that is that whether the government continues with their shareholding or diverts gradually or whatever they may decide to do is independent of what their policy is,” Moondra added. “...we as a company don't have any information or engagement with them on the subject.”
Vodafone Idea's total promoter holdings are 38.2 percent, including Aditya Birla Group’s 15 percent and Vodafone Group’s 23.2 percent. The institutional holdings are 20.1 percent, while the non-institutional holdings are 17.9 percent.
The top executive said that the government is focused on having three healthy private operators.
“...the reforms package was announced primarily with the objective of saying that support needs to be provided…in addition, the government also has, besides the equity stake, a large amount of money which we owe to them,” he added while responding to analysts’ queries during the Q1 conference call on August 13.
“And if you take everything into account, the conversion to equity was a means of supporting the balance sheet of the company by converting some debt into equity. So, I would say, the policy of the government remains the same,” he added.
Vodafone Idea’s payment obligations to the government stood at Rs 2,095.2 billion (Rs 209,520 crore) as of June 30, 2024 including deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1,392 billion ( Rs 139,200 crore and AGR liability of Rs 703.2 billion (Rs 70,320 crore), as per the Q1 earnings report released on August 12.
On the company's curative petition against an earlier court order regarding its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, Moondra said the company is awaiting the matter to be admitted for an open hearing. "...we had mentioned it in the court and the Honorable Chief Justice had said that he'll look into the matter and take a decision soon. That's the feedback I got from our counsel," he said.
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