Why did
Vodafone Idea shares jump 17%?
On September 2, the share
price of Vodafone Idea increased by more than 17% after Aditya Birla Group
(ABG) Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla reportedly met with Telecom Minister
Ashwini Vaishnaw.
VIL closed at Rs 7.14 on the BSE, up Rs
1.05, or 17.24 percent. It reached a high of Rs 7.29 intraday.
The meeting takes place at a time when the
government is planning some relief measures for the telecommunications
industry.
Birla and Vaishnaw discussed the state of
the telecom sector and the immediate need for government intervention. Birla
resigned as chairman of the cash-strapped telco last month. According to
sources, the government is now considering some relief measures for the entire
sector, not just the company.
VIL, a joint venture between ABG and
Vodafone Group, and it is the country's third-largest telecom operator.
However, it is obligated to pay Rs 51,400 crore in dues after the Supreme Court
ordered that non-telecom revenues be included in calculating statutory dues.
The court also denied its request to recalculate the AGR dues due to arithmetic
errors.
While the company stated that it is not
attempting to avoid paying the dues, if the arithmetic errors in the dues were
not corrected, the telco would be forced to close its doors.
Given this, Birla wrote to the government,
stating that he is willing to sell his stake in the telco to any government
entity in order to keep the company afloat.
For the first quarter of fiscal year
2021-22, the company reported a loss of Rs 7,319.1 crore. According to VIL's
quarterly report (April-June 2021), revenue decreased by 4.7 percent QoQ to Rs
91.5 billion due to a slowdown in economic activity caused by
lockdown/restrictions in several districts during the harsh second wave of
COVID-19.
According to the company, EBITDA for the
quarter was Rs. 37.1 billion, with EBITDA margins of 40.5 percent compared to
45.9 percent in Q4FY21. Its net worth, however, is negative Rs 4,55,409
million.
On 15 January 2021 and 05 August 2021, the
share reached a 52-week high of Rs 13.80 and a 52-week low of Rs 4.55,
respectively.
It is currently trading 48.26% below its
52-week high and 56.92% above its 52-week low.