Vodafone Exit From Indian Market Now in Talks as Merged Company Continues to Lose Subscribers
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Vodafone Exit From Indian Market Now in Talks as Merged Company Continues to Lose Subscribers:
There is reportedly a buzz in telecom circles that Vodafone is ready to “pack up and leave any day now” as operating losses mount in the joint venture company, Vodafone-Idea.
The telecom regulatory world is abuzz with feverish talk that the imperilled telecom operator, Vodafone, is ready to exit its India operations.
An email questionnaire was sent by IANS to a Vodafone-Idea spokesperson in India. IANS, in turn was asked to direct the queries to Ben Padovan, Group Head of Corporate Communications, Vodafone Group Plc.
Vodafone group did not respond to queries for two days till the time of printing.
There is a buzz in telecom circles that Vodafone is ready to “pack up and leave any day now” as operating losses mount in the joint venture company, Vodafone-Idea, loss of lakhs of subscribers every month and a dwindling market capitalization which is hurting any fresh fund raising.
On Wednesday, Vodafone-Idea issued a clarification on the claim that Vodafone Idea has approached its lenders for debt recast.
“There has been reportage in some media alleging that Vodafone Idea has approached its lenders for debt recast. We categorically deny and dismiss this as baseless and factually incorrect. We have not made any request for debt recast to any lender or asked for reworking of payment terms. We continue to pay all our debts as and when these fall due,” the company said.
The material event for the company has been the recent Supreme Court judgement on AGR under which Vodafone Idea will have to pay around Rs 28,309 crore in three months time.
Following the sharp fall in shares, Vodafone-Idea has clarified to stock exchanges on October 25 and again on Tuesday, this week, that “SC judgement represents a significant event with respect for the company (sic)”.
“We cannot presently comment on the correctness and completeness of the aforesaid figures. The company is studying the judgement and we will evaluate our next steps,” it said.
“The Judgement has financial implications, which we are reviewing. We will engage with the DoT in order for it to consider granting relief, including a waiver on interest and penalties.”
Following the verdict, Vodafone-Idea stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 3.66 and traded at Rs 3.86 on Wednesday morning. Its market capitalization is a measly Rs 11,091 crore, while the investments have been several billions of dollars.
In a media statement on the AGR verdict, the company said, “Vodafone Idea is extremely disappointed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court judgment on the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) case”.
“We will study the ruling as soon as it is available, along with our legal advisers, to determine next steps. If there are technical or procedural grounds for doing so, this could include a Review Application,” the company said.
“Clearly this judgment has significantly damaging implications for India’s telecom industry, which is already reeling under huge financial stress and is left with only four operators.
“Significant investment of several billion dollars has been made in creating world class networks. Today’s order has huge impact on two private operators while most of the other impacted operators have exited the sector. We urgently request that the government engage on this matter in order to find ways to mitigate the financial stress for the industry”, the company said.
In another setback, Vodafone-Idea announced last week that in regard to the merger of Indus Towers, in which it holds 11.15 per cent equity, with Bharti Infratel, it has not been possible to meet the conditions, including DoT approval under the FDI regulations before the target date of October 24.
The parties have entered into an agreement to extend the date by two months to December 24.
Vodafone Idea will receive a lower cash payment based on the fall in the share price of Bharti Infratel, movements in net debt at Bharti lnfratel and Indus.
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Well i kind of understand now. That was the reason of VAS activation spree, they were trying to recover some fund to pay dues. Thanks for tag.
Just about 2 hours ago, I read this news.
So there will be only 2 operators… if this comes true… Airtel and Jio.
BSNL 
Wtf! I was thinking to move back to them just next week! Anything but Jio, please.
Man, Only Vodafone signals are good at my home. airtel and jio are pathetic. if this happens, I may have to sell mobile phone and go for landline.
then what will happen to cashbacks loots if landline comes back to power
Expected Tha… Voda Khud Ne Hathiyaar Dal Dega 
Jaldi Jaldi Sab Voda-Idea Sim Ka Balance Khatam Kr Lo Warna Aircel/Reliance Jaise Haal Hojayga 
Mera Voda Mein Around 1.5K Balance Pada Hai…4G Data Use Kr K Khatam Krna Hoga 
I had predicted couple of days back that there are possibilities of a merger of Airtel and Voda-Idea
A bad move from all existing operators in recent days. 
Source? 
Really sad news for telecom industry
so now I have a reason to ditch sadaphone
join bsnl or JIO
not the thug cartel
BSNL can be quite good only if these government BABUS do their job honestly without torturing customer or asking for bribe.
So No more doggy ads during IPL. Peace.
Hope you see airtel’s 4g girl in between from now 
Typical clickbait news based on absolutely nothing just pure speculation by some random employee.
Based on absolutely nothing
“There is reportedly a buzz in telecom circles”
lol
Where are those circles ? Who is talking about this hypothetical buzz ?
Any quotes from any relevant corporate officer/employee of Vodafone?
Any other citings from any relevant stakeholder ?
Answer is no.
These idiots are just putting things out there dressed up as news.
Sure things are hard for telecom giants right now after the recent sc ruling and ongoing fierce competition but India is too big of a market to just pack up and leave. And it’s only going to grow big from here.
Bearing out and embracing though customer acquisition phase and heavy discount phase seem like a no brainer to me.
Bhai to the last day aircel denied they are shutting down. And then happened what everyone was talking abt. One shouldn’t trust official statements in hard times
they have no choice than to pack up n leave as long as this guy is the competetion
JIO has only 4G signal , so it eat more battery and phone is hot all the time; also sometime i find in vodafone 3G signal goood then 4G and switch to that but no such option in JIO;
on the positive side JIO is the only operator on which 1860____ helpline number of credit cards are free
Idea ka kya hoga kalia
So Supreme Court asked to pay 30k crores each for Airtel and Vodafone and 14c for jio…
Is this the plan by central government Airtel and voda to stop business and only jio will remain in market and loot people ?
Jio is recent entrant , the due is from 2005,
Since they entered India after buying Hutchison Essar, it was a tough ride for them. Arun Sareen who was CEO of Voda UK was behind this investment and 2 years later he exit Voda UK. I don’t know why but at that time also I thought he invested in India to give loss to Voda UK. Vodafone was always behind in profits. The deal with Hutch around 11k crores ($2bn that time as $ was Rs.55) was overpriced. Voda always misread the market. They were slow in 3G expansion. Later Voda India CEO said India don’t need 4G till 2025. All their assumptions were backfiring them and I labelled Voda as junk when they started talking about merger with Idea who had strong presence in Tier 2 and 3 cities with voice only customers. Data became India’s need after 2010 and Voda or even Idea didn’t invested heavily to push data services. Only when they get alarming situation they started to do things but it was always late for them. Even now they don’t have VoLTE coverage around 40%. In cities too you face problems with their network.
In North zone, only UP and Haryana has their best efforts. Rest all struggling and Punjab is worst affected due to their lackluster management. When Jio came it was their mission to throw Voda out of picture. Once Airtel also wanted but then became sister. 
I am using JIO as my only number for last 3 years. and never needed to visit store or call customer care. Even with incoming call charges i am not going to change operator because no confusing plan and auto active VAS issue. My brother has Vodafone (and before 6 month it was Airtel) but as usual issue of confusing plan, no track of deduction and VAS problem so in a year two three time require to visit store.
main issue with non-technical person with non-JIO operator is, even after buying unlimited plan, people don’t know to deactivate main balance deduction for internet. so after consuming daily data balance, they starts deducting from main balance.
Call CC and ask them to debar you from vas services. They can do that. I did same.
Sms STOP to 1925 for stopping data charges after full data usage
Just when i wanted to port to Vodafone because of shit reception from Jio/Airtel..
Anyways this is just hoax news (Can’t deny the fact that these promoted/published hoax news (By Opposite parties) can instill fear in the investors…and there’s a possibility that this hoax might even come true because of the hoax)
I will miss ZooZoo and Pug…. 
I was always a huge fan on Voda Ads 
Always loved the creativity and uniqueness!
So in India, only Jio ll rule. Ye monopoly ko sarkaar kaheko promote karta hai I really don’t know. Edit: sorry for the slang. I deleted it. It was my bad.
remember whose photo was used to launch Jio
I am using idea postpaid in Mumbai for last 2 years. Awesone data speed even during travel in local trains. and never had any issue with billing ..for me jio is worst never able to use 4G while travelling in trains
‘Airtel, Voda Idea shedding crocodile tears’: Reliance Jio in letter slamming COAI – BusinessToday
ZooZoos 😅
Modi’s name or photo was used in allmost all sectors to promote things, due to huge modi wave during that time.
@DaBomb