On Monday, Vodafone Idea (Vi), the third-largest telecom company in the country, denied the claim of being acquired by any other organisation/company. The telco has said in an exchange filing that the news item making rounds online is incorrect. On Sunday, an online news publication said that Vodafone Idea could be acquired by a US company. The list of companies mentioned in the article included Starlink, Verizon and Amazon.
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But Vodafone Idea took no time to quash the claims made in the news item. The telco confirmed that it is not in any such talks with any player. The telco said, "We wish to submit that the said News Item is incorrect. The Company is not in any such discussion with any of the named parties."
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Over the last few days, the share price of Vodafone Idea has jumped quite a bit to even reach a 52-week high figure. The telco also recently made a payment of Rs 1,701 crores to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the 5G spectrum instalment. Vi is slowly clearing its dues towards the government as well as the banks. However, the telco needs more money to pay off the vendors and also make fresh investments in its networks.
Forget 5G, but to even improve the 4G network performance and reach, the telco needs a considerable amount of funds. Whatever amount that the telco is able to generate for itself is going towards the clearing of dues right now. The promoters need to step in here with more funds to show the market that they still trust the company to make a comeback from its current position. For Vi to compete with the other private players, it needs to get access to a considerable amount of funds and that doesn't seem to be happening.
