Vodafone Idea Reports Net Loss in Maiden Quarterly Earnings

Vodafone Idea on Wednesday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 4,973.8 crore for the July-September quarter.

The company, in its maiden quarterly result after the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, reported a total income of Rs 7,878.6 crore during the second quarter of the current fiscal year ending March.

The merger was completed on August 31.

The second-quarter earnings include results for Idea Cellular up to August 30 and those for Vodafone Idea from August 31 to September 30. Hence, these are not comparable to the year-earlier quarter, the company said in a statement.

It reported an average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 88, 4.5 per cent lower sequentially.

On infrastructre integration post merger, the company said that spectrum consolidation and network integration has started and circle-level capex planning for the network integration, including vendor selection, is complete.

Vodafone Idea said that the Board of Directors has established a committee of Board members to evaluate a potential capital raise of up to Rs 250 billion (Rs 25,000 crore).

"The promoter shareholders, Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group, have indicated to the Board that they would contribute up to Rs 110 billion (Rs 11,000 crore) and up to Rs 72.5 billion (Rs 7,250 crore), respectively as part of such a capital raise," it added.