Vodafone Idea (Vi) has ongoing discussions with lenders to secure long-term funding for the planned capital investment programme of \u20b945,000 crore over FY27 and FY29, and the telecom operator has entered the new fiscal year with greater financial clarity and a renewed capacity to invest, its Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said. <\/p>\n
\u201cDiscussions continue with lenders to secure long-term funding for the planned capital investment programme of \u20b945,000 crore over FY27 to FY29, supporting the expansion of a fully competitive network,\u201d Birla said in the telco\u2019s annual report for FY26 released on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Confidence among investors and lenders strengthened during the financial year that ended March 31, 2026, the top executive said. <\/p>\n
During the year, Vi raised \u20b93,300 crore through non-convertible debentures (NCDs). <\/p>\n
\u201cPromoter support remained unequivocal. Vodafone Group concluded the settlement of the Contingent Liability Adjustment Mechanism (CLAM) receivable amounting to \u20b96,394 crore, while the Aditya Birla Group committed a further equity infusion of $500 million (approximately \u20b94,730 crore) through fully convertible instruments,\u201d Birla said. <\/p>\n
He termed the resolution of the AGR matter the \u201cmost significant\u201d development for India\u2019s third-largest private wireless telco. <\/p>\n
Following a reassessment by a Department of Telecommunications (DoT) committee, the telecom carrier\u2019s AGR liability has been finalised at \u20b964,046 crore, substantially below the earlier provisional figure of \u20b987,695 crore. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe reduction in liability, together with the recognition of the present value of future payments, was a key factor contributing to the one-time profit after tax of \u20b934,552 crore. More importantly, it removed a major source of uncertainty by establishing a clear long-term repayment schedule,\u201d Birla said. <\/p>\n
Vi\u2019s revenue increased 3% to \u20b944,873 crore in FY26, from \u20b943,571 crore a year earlier. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 4.8% to \u20b919,003 crore, while the EBITDA margin improved to 43.1% from 41.6%, \u201creflecting disciplined cost management alongside steady revenue growth\u201d, he added. <\/p>\n
Vi\u2019s average revenue per user (ARPU) \u2013 a crucial performance metric \u2013 reached \u20b9190 in the fourth quarter of FY26, an increase of 8.3% over the previous year. Monthly subscriber additions turned positive from February 2026, marking the first sustained improvement in customer growth in several years. <\/p>\n
The telco ended FY26 with 192.8 million subscribers, including 128.9 million on 4G and 5G networks. <\/p>\n
As a result of the improving financial profile, both CRISIL and ICRA upgraded the company\u2019s credit rating to A- (Stable) during the year. <\/p>\n
\u201cFY26 was a year of resolution. FY27 begins a period of execution. The company enters this phase with greater financial clarity, improving operating performance and renewed capacity to invest,\u201d Birla said. <\/p>\n
Vi\u2019s priorities include execution of the network investment programme, strengthening market competitiveness, and translating a stronger balance sheet into sustained growth in customers and earnings, he said. <\/p>\n
Birla concluded that the telecom industry\u2019s consolidation into three private operators and one state-owned player (BSNL) has \u201crestored pricing discipline and improved the sector\u2019s investment outlook\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vodafone Idea (Vi) has ongoing discussions with lenders to secure long-term funding for the planned capital investment programme of \u20b945,000 crore over FY27 and FY29, and the telecom operator has entered the new fiscal year with greater financial clarity and a renewed capacity to invest, its Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said. \u201cDiscussions continue with lenders to secure long-term funding for the planned capital investment programme of \u20b945,000 crore over FY27 to FY29, supporting the expansion of a fully competitive network,\u201d Birla said in the telco\u2019s annual report for FY26 released on Wednesday. Confidence among investors and lenders strengthened during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1026491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-telecom"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1026492,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026491\/revisions\/1026492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}