Rs25,000-cr Vodafone Idea rights fully subscribed: report

Through the rights issue, Voda Idea, the country’s largest telecom operator, had offered 20,000 million new shares at Rs12.50 apiece.

As per data published by National Stock Exchange (NSE), the rights issue has received bids for 11,090 million shares at market close on Wednesday.

“The Vodafone Idea rights has been subscribed 1.07 times as per data available from registrar to the rights issue last night. This can go up. Final data is expected to be published by the registrar today (Thursday),” one of the bankers involved in the rights issue process said.

The banker said that the data published by stock exchanges does not include subscription that goes to the registrar directly under Applications Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) facility.

He said that the rights issue entitlement worth about Rs2,000 crore renounced by Malaysia-based Axiata Group has gone through ASBA route.

Axiata held 712 million shares; and in the ongoing rights issue, it was entitled to subscribe to 1,630 million shares worth about Rs2,000 crore.

Promoter shareholders - Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group - have reiterated to the board that they intend to contribute up to Rs 11,000 crore and up to Rs 7,250 crore, respectively, amounting to a total of Rs18,250 crore, as part of the Rs25,000-crore rights issue.

According to a JM Financial report, minority shareholders will need to make an investment of at least Rs5,410 crore in the rights issue to keep promoters’ holding at 75 per cent, to comply with the norms of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

The banker said that the investment of over Rs8,400 crore through non-promoter equity portion has come, as per data which was available on Wednesday night - when issue closed, and final figure will be published today.

Vodafone Idea shares were trading at Rs16.75 apiece, down 2.62 per cent compared the previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).