Vodafone Idea (Vi) has a very bad financial standing with a ton of debt on its shoulders. The company is looking to make good on its promises to the customers and investors. However, the equipment or gear vendors who have supplied Vi with products are worried about recovering their money. The telco has many dues to clear to the government and other bodies. Since its profits are also dipping and the subscriber count is dropping, the vendors have become jittery and are worrying if they will get their money back. Companies including Nokia, Ericsson, ZTE, and Huawei have supplied Vi with network equipment over the last few years.
Vendors Don’t Seek Immediate Payments But Are Worried Nonetheless
As per an ET Telecom report, the telecom vendors aren’t looking for immediate payments from the telco. Instead, they are closely monitoring the market situation so that they can keep track of the telco’s future.
According to some earlier reports, to reduce their exposure, vendors had started working in limited quantity with Vodafone Idea. This allowed the vendors to first recover the money they were owed and then supply for another order. Even Vi liked the arrangement as it didn’t have to pile on more debt.
But still, there’s a lot of money that Vi needs to pay to the vendors. One of the top executives of a European vendor told the publication that Vi has never come around to pay the complete dues and it still owes hundreds of crores to the vendor.
Even though the vendors had limited their exposure to Vodafone Idea after the Supreme Court (SC) judgment for paying the statutory dues, the total exposure that all the vendors have with Vodafone Idea is still about $200 million.
The telco’s not going anywhere so the vendors’ won’t be worried a lot. However, there’s also one thing, Vi won’t be able to clear all these dues any time soon.
