Vodafone Idea posted a loss of Rs 4950.7 crore for the September end quarter, in its first results since being formed, hurt by the continuing price war and higher costs, and unveiled plans to raise Rs25,000 crore through equity and more by selling its fibre assets to take on competition from Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
"The loss (profit after tax) for the quarter was Rs. 49.7 billion (Rs 4,970 crore) after accounting tax of Rs. 4.1 billion," the Mumbai-based company in a statement Wednesday said.
Company's total revenue declined 7.1% to 7,663 crore for July-September period.
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 company added.
India's largest telco said that the headline tariffs remained stable during the quarter. However, customer migration to lower ARPU offerings, led to a 4.7% quarterly decline in ARPU to Rs 88 for the quarter.
Telco's gross debt as at September 30, 2018 stood at Rs 1,26,100 crore while it has also lost 1.3 crore subscribers during the quarter.
The reported figures were for Idea Cellular up to August 30, 2018 and for Vodafone Idea from August 31 to September 30 and hence these are not comparable to the earlier period, according to VIL.
"We have set on a strong course with meticulous pre-merger planning and rigorous post-merger execution. In just 75-days of operations, several milestones have been achieved, ahead of expected timeline," Balesh Sharma, chief executive of Vodafone Idea Limited said.
Sharma, however, added that shareholders support along with assets monetisation puts the company into a strong position to achieve its strategic intent.
“Several parties have indicated a potential interest in acquiring the company's fibre network, consisting of over 156,000 kilometer of intra- and inter-city fibre routes, the company added.