Voda Idea to seek shareholder nod for divesting fibre assets to Voda Towers

Vodafone Idea said Saturday it will seek its shareholders' approval on June 6 to transfer optical fibre assets to a wholly-owned subsidiary, Vodafone Towers Limited.

The company has proposed to hive off its telecom fibre infrastructure to Vodafone Towers before monetising it and approached the National Company Law Tribunal Ahmedabad on April 11, 2019, for its approval.

"NCLT has directed a meeting to be held of the equity shareholders of the Applicant Company... notice is hereby given that a meeting of the equity shareholders of the Applicant Company will be held...on Thursday, the 6th day of June 2019," Vodafone Idea said in a regulatory filing.

According to an industry source, Vodafone Idea (VIL) has received valuation of around Rs 15,000 crore for its around 156,000 kilometre long telecom fibre assets.

"... the Transferor Company (VIL) believes that it would be beneficial to restructure its business by divesting the Fibre Infrastructure Undertaking into a separate legal entity with sharper and dedicated focus on the fibre infrastructure business so as to achieve greater infrastructure sharing, operational efficiencies and cost optimization resulting in more affordable and reliable telecommunications services to its consumers," the filing said.

VIL in the filing said that there would be neither any change in its the capital structure nor in the Vodafone Towers pursuant to the sanctioning of the scheme.