Rights issue oversubscribed, crossed Rs 25,000 crore: Vodafone Idea

The country's largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea Thursday said its rights issue has been over subscribed, and crossed Rs 25,000 crore in value terms.

"The company would like to clarify that based on preliminary information received the total applications from ASBA and Non-ASBA have exceeded the total issue amount of Rs 25,000 crore, Vodafone Idea said in a regulatory filing.

Through the rights issue, which ran between April 10 and April 24, the company offered 2,000 crore new shares at Rs 12.50 apiece.

"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 merchant bankers involved in the rights issue process told PTI.

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 Rs 2,000 crore renounced by Malaysia-based Axiata Group has gone through non-ASBA route.

Axiata held 71.2 crore shares; and in the ongoing rights issue, it was entitled to subscribe 163 crore shares worth about Rs 2,000 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 Rs 18,250 crore, as part of the Rs 25,000-crore rights issue.

According to a JM Financial report, minority shareholders will need to make an investment of at least Rs 5,410 crore in the rights issue to keep promoters' holding at 75 per cent, to comply with the Sebi norms.

The banker said that the investment of over Rs 8,400 crore through non-promoter equity portion has come, as per data which was available on Wednesday night - when issue closed, and final figures will be published on Thursday.

Vodafone Idea shares were trading at Rs 16.75 apiece, down by 3.49 per cent compared the previous close on BSE in afternoon session.