Mumbai: Vodafone Idea (Vi) has secured the first Rs 6,400 crore tranche of funding for its planned Rs 45,000 crore network expansion over the next three years and is close to concluding discussions with an State Bank of India (SBI)-led consortium of public sector banks, demonstrating initial progress in its long-pending debt raise plans.
"This (financial) architecture is built on three cohorts,” chief executive Abhijit Kishore said in a post-earnings call on Tuesday. “First is a consortium of public sector banks led by SBI with six to seven participating banks. Second is Indian private banks and the third is external commercial borrowings (ECB) with foreign banks,” he explained.
“We remain meaningfully engaged with our lenders across these three cohorts and have made substantial progress. We have successfully raised the first tranche of funding of Rs 6,400 crore, including Rs 1,183 crore from warrant proceeds and debt, including non-funded facilities through ECBs and Indian private bank,” the executive said.
Kishore said the company was "hopeful of closing the discussion with the PSU banks led by SBI" while continuing work on other debt funding avenues.
The company has already placed equipment orders worth Rs 9,000 crore, including Rs 1,930 crore of capital expenditure incurred during the June quarter, with vendors including Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung. "We intend to deploy all of these capex over the next two quarters," Kishore said, adding that the company plans to roll out 3,000-3,500 new 4G sites every month.
Vi narrowed its underlying consolidated net loss to Rs 5,358 crore in the quarter ended June 2026 from Rs 6,611 crore in the same period last year. However, if exceptional gain of Rs 1,611 crore is accounted for from revaluation of pledged shares backed by Vodafone Group, the company reported a net loss of Rs 3,754 crore for the reported period.
In the preceding March quarter too, Vi had reported a net profit of Rs 51,970 crore due to exceptional gain after the government decided to defer its statutory liabilities.
India’s third-largest telecom operator by market share reported its first full quarter of positive net subscriber additions since the Vodafone and Idea merger in 2019. At June-end, its customer base increased to 193.1 million from 192.8 million in the previous quarter.
Kishore said the company's turnaround efforts were beginning to translate into customer gains. "All seven of our critical business parameters are now trending positively," he said, highlighting the company's first quarter of positive net subscriber additions since the Vodafone-Idea merger, a 6% increase in revenue and ARPU growth to Rs 195.
Vi reiterated that it would maintain its previously announced Rs 45,000 crore capex programme and complete most of its 4G rollout over the next 18 months. The operator currently has more than 16,000 5G sites live across over 200 cities and plans to expand to another 200-plus cities over the next two quarters. Over the three-year period, the company aims to deploy 55,000-57,000 4G sites and 86,000-90,000 5G sites, with 5G rollout extending into the third year because of fibre deployment requirements.
Management also reiterated its 3-year financial guidance to deliver a 3x increase in cash EBITDA.
In the enterprise segment, Kishore noted that Vi had doubled net additions in M2M over the past year and continues to hold a strong position in connected cars, vehicle tracking, smart metering and point-of-sale connectivity.
