Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) on Friday issued its separate clarifications on the Supreme Court's verdict on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) matter and the Rs 10,000 crore capital expenditure (capex) funding.
VIL, in response to the top court's order which rejected a set of pleas by the telecom operators over alleged miscalculations in AGR-related dues, said, "There were miscellaneous applications, review petitions and a curative petition filed in the AGR matter at the Hon'ble Supreme Court from time to time by the company and other telecom operators, mostly dealing with the need for allowing correction of manifest errors in AGR demands. These petitions had mostly been disposed of, the last being the dismissal of the curative petition for which we had intimated the stock exchanges on September 19, 2024. However, there was one pending review petition dated August 23, 2021, which has now been dismissed, which closes all AGR-related matters at the Hon'ble Supreme Court."
In another development, VIL clarified that the Rs 10,000 crore capex expansion has been announced already. "We wish to inform that the company had at the earnings call held on November 14, 2024, given a capex guidance of Rs 10,000 crore for financial year 2024-25. Further, at the investor conference call held on February 12, 2025, following the quarterly results which were declared on February 11, 2025, the company had re-iterated the capex guidance of Rs 10,000 crore for the financial year 2024-25 of which ~ Rs 5,300 crore has already been spent till December 31, 2024. Accordingly, there is nothing further to inform from our end in this regard," it stated.
On the stock-specific front, VIL shares tumbled 5.09 per cent to settle at Rs 8.21 today. At this price, they have edged up 2.37 per cent on a year-to-date (YTD) basis.
The telco's consolidated net loss reduced to Rs 6,609.3 crore in the December 2024 quarter (Q3 FY25) from Rs 6,986.7 crore in year-ago period. The telecom operator's revenue from operations climbed 4.16 per cent to Rs 11,117.3 crore in Q3 FY25 as against Rs 10,673.1 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
Voda Idea mentioned that the 4G subscriber base stood at 12.6 crore at the end of Q3 FY25, increasing from 12.56 crore as of Q3 FY24. "Customer ARPU (ex M2M) improved to Rs 173 vs Rs 166 in Q2 FY25, up 4.7 per cent on QoQ basis, driven by tariff hike and customer upgrades," it added. ARPU stands for average revenue per user.
VIL is currently involved in the process of rolling out its 5G services in select areas. The company was formed in 2018 when Vodafone Group Plc merged its India business with Idea Cellular. Promoters held a 38.80 per cent stake in the operator as of January 9, 2025, a 1.48 per cent uptick from 37.32 per cent on December 31, 2024.