News
Debt laden Vodafone Idea (Vi) is planning to ease its financial woes by selling its fixed-line broadband subsidiary, optic fibre unit and data centres business.
Vi hopes to raise about Rs 74,000 crore (about $1 billion) through the sale to meet liabilities including Rs 22,500 crore towards debt repayment, adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payments and spectrum dues between December ’21-April ’22.
The company has spent the last few months on unsuccessful fund raising, despite several rounds of discussions with potential investors. CFO Akshaya Moondra said last week, during an analyst call, that the company hopes to receive an additional Rs 3,000 crore in cash this financial year from tax refunds and sale of land banks which were bought for data centres.
The sale of broadband, optic fibre and data centre assets may take the form of a “sale and leaseback model” with the valuation depending on the tenure of the lease arrangement with a potential buyer and how much it pay monthly rent for the lease.
An investment banker with knowledge of the situation is quoted as saying "Vi is expecting between $800 million and $1 billion (from the broadband, optic fiber, and data center sales), but investors are not very keen at these price points."
Get the Total Telecom daily news in your inbox – signup at https://www.totaltele.com/register
