Vi Q1 loss widens to ₹6,608 cr; COO Kishore to replace Moondra as CEO

Business Standard

a day ago

Vodafone Idea's (VI's) losses widened to Rs 6,608 crore in the quarter ended June 2025, compared to Rs 6,432 crore in the same period last year, but narrowed sequentially from Rs 7,166 crore in the quarter ended March 2025.
Revenue rose nearly 5 per cent year-on-year to Rs 11,164 crore in the June quarter, up from Rs 10,764 crore a year earlier, and increased sequentially from Rs 11,228 crore in the March quarter.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) rose to Rs 4,612 crore, up 9.7 per cent from Rs 4,204 crore. However, the telco's finance cost rose 6.7 per cent to Rs 5,928 crore from Rs 5,519 crore in the same quarter last year.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) rose to Rs 165 in the quarter, up 13 per cent from Rs 146 in the year-ago period and from Rs 164 in the March quarter, aided by tariff revisions and customer upgrades. Despite the increase, VI's ARPU remains the lowest among peers, with Bharti Airtel leading at Rs 250 in the June quarter.
The country's third-largest carrier by subscribers appointed Chief Operating Officer Abhijit Kishore as its next chief executive officer, succeeding Akshaya Moondra, whose three-year term ends on 18 August. Kishore has been with the company since 2015 in various roles.
In a statement to the BSE on Thursday, the Aditya Birla Group company said it was in discussions with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to seek relief on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payments in equal monthly instalments from March-end 2026.
VI said it was also in talks with lenders for waivers. Outstanding debt from banks stands at Rs 1,944.5 crore, while deferred payment obligations for spectrum purchased in auctions — payable over 20 years until FY44 — and AGR dues payable until 2031 total Rs 1.99 trillion.
'The group's ability to settle the above liabilities is dependent on further support from the DoT on the AGR matter, fund-raise through equity and debt, and generation of cash flow from operations. Based on current efforts, the group believes that it would be able to get DoT support, successfully arrange funds, and generate cash flow from operations,' the carrier said.
The telco must pay Rs 16,428 crore as AGR instalments by March 2026 and Rs 2,641 crore in deferred spectrum payments by June 2026.
'We continue to invest in capex, and to support our broader capex plans of Rs 500–550 billion, we remain engaged with lenders to secure debt financing,' Moondra said.
In the March 2025 quarter, VI's board approved raising Rs 20,000 crore through another follow-on public offer (FPO), private placement including qualified institutional placement, or any other permissible mode. The telco had issued India's largest FPO of Rs 18,000 crore in April 2024, followed by preferential share issues to promoters and vendors Nokia and Ericsson. VI's promoters had also contributed Rs 4,000 crore, in addition to Rs 1,980 crore raised from Vodafone Group PLC entities via a preferential issue in January 2025.
Having launched 5G services in March, the telco said it was offering high-speed data in 22 cities across 13 circles, with plans to expand coverage to key cities in all 17 circles by September 2025. Subscriber loss was limited to 0.5 million in the quarter, taking its customer base to 197.7 million, including 127.4 million 4G and 5G users.
VI added that its strategic partnership with AST SpaceMobile aims to deliver direct-to-device satellite broadband connectivity in remote areas without terrestrial networks.