Vodafone Idea and Airtel: A tale of two rights issues in telecom sector

After two of the largest rights issues in the telecom sector, both Airtel and Vodafone Idea have gone on  different performance graphs. While the Airtel stock has soared 72 per cent since the issue, that of  Voda Idea has dropped to half of where it started off.

What worked for Airtel

• Airtel is well placed to tackle industry pressure as it focuses on high-paying customers

• Airtel with a relatively nimble balance sheet post-rights issue can remain a major player in Indian telecom

• It added 8.4 mn 4G users and has 120 mn data users of which about 95 million are on 4G

What did not work for Vodafone-Idea

• Subscriber market share loss to continue given a selective 4G capex strategy

• Balance sheet to deteriorate despite the recent fundraising

• 4G capacity expansion is not immediate and is likely to play out gradually