Kumar Mangalam Birla (KMB), chairman of Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), recently increased his stake in the third-largest telecom operator in the country. Birla-owned Aditya Birla Group (ABG) is one of the promoters of Vodafone Idea. This shows that Birla is quite confident in the company's future in India. On September 6, 2024, Birla acquired 18.6 million shares of Vi. On the same day, Birla-owned Pilani Investment and Industries Corporation also bought 3 million shares in the telco.
Read More - Vodafone Idea Prepaid Plans with SunNXT
From the previous holdings data, ABG had a 15% stake in Vi while Vodafone UK had 23.3%. Regardless of the said move, Vi's share price has been falling for two continuous days. At the time of writing this, Vi's share price is Rs 13.27 (-1.92%). In the last month, the telco's share price has fallen 17.86%. This has happened despite the telco raising funds from investors.
VIL raised around Rs 24,000 crore in equity from investors and vendors including Nokia and Ericsson. At the same time, the company plans to raise another Rs 25,000 crore via debt from lending institutions. VIL confirmed that it is in talks with banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI). Much recently, Goldman Sachs put a target price of Rs 2.5 on Vi's shares. This is because the firm believes that VIL would lose its revenue market share further to competitors.
Read More - Vodafone Idea Hero Unlimited Bundled Plan Offering Bonus Data
VIL plans to use the raised funds to invest in 4G and 5G rollout over the coming quarters. Much of the work to improve the networks has already been happening and by the end of calendar year 2024, VIL also plans to rollout 5G commercially. The company will also deploy small cells at a rapid pace starting the Jan-March 2025 quarter. We will be tracking the VIL share price in the coming days, so stay tuned.
