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Where Vodafone Idea Goes From Here

While conversion of government dues to equity will give Vodafone Idea a fighting chance, it's not a panacea, says R Chandrashekhar

<div class="paragraphs"><p>Marine Drive during a weekend lockdown in Mumbai, on April 10, 2021. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)</p></div>
Marine Drive during a weekend lockdown in Mumbai, on April 10, 2021. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

As narrated to BloombergQuint.

A few things have changed recently in India’s telecom sector. There has been a readjustment of tariffs and that has certainly changed the prognosis for companies like Vodafone Idea Ltd., apart from the others. With the moratorium and conversion of dues to the government into equity, the company has a fighting chance of nursing itself back to financial health. In which case, the government does get to retain the net present value of its dues. Having said that, it is not as if this is a panacea and that the problems are over for VIL or the government.

For VIL to prosper or even survive, it is not just a question of tiding over the current issues and constraints which it faces, but also how well it positions itself for the future. That would depend on how much investment it makes on 5G, how much preparation it does for the inevitable 6G, and so on. All of these impending developments will require significant additional investment — in spectrum, equipment upgrade, etc. — which VIL will need to do to retain and add new subscribers, particularly the premium category of corporate customers and others. It is not clear to me that the current business dynamic enables the company to generate that kind of money. The question will still remain whether the company will be able to raise additional resources based on this reprieve, whether it can mobilise additional money for future growth and expansion with this altered and enhanced equity base. That will be closely related to the continued and sustained viability of the operations of Vodafone Idea.

Government’s Objectives As Shareholder

On the conversion into equity, the government has to take a call on whether it is preference equity or common equity. So far, indications are the government will be issued common equity. The company has also clarified that the government has not yet sought a board seat or any management rights. Which would mean that the promoters would still effectively exercise management control and decision-making. Since the government equity would be more than 26%, it does give certain rights provided to major shareholders under company law.

Does this transfer the problem to the government? This is one way in which the government is attempting to protect its revenue without imposing a crushing cash outflow burden on a telecom operator that cannot afford or sustain that at this point.

This whole arrangement has been offered by the government with three intentions in mind. The first is to safeguard revenues that are owed to the government that would have otherwise vanished if the company went under. That is the clear objective and immediate provocation — if not an immediate inflow, then to safeguard the NPV and at some appropriate time in the future to be able to encash it if it so decided. The second objective is to offer a reprieve to Vodafone Idea which was struggling financially and to enable the company to stay afloat. Third, which is related to the second, is the government’s stated intention of sustaining a three-private-player market, apart from BSNL and MTNL, which as everybody knows, are not in a position to offer a good commercial fight.

Having said that, the government’s role as a shareholder would be to support the company’s efforts to nurse itself back to financial health. Given that the owners have not demonstrated any self-destructive tendencies and have shown that they want to do everything possible to keep the company afloat, while at the same time expressing their inability to invest further, their position is clear. These are the parameters within which the revival has to be done and to that extent, the government would play a supportive role, not a very proactive one because that is not its forte. I don’t expect such a contingency to arise.

The government would want to ensure VIL’s financial health remains safeguarded and that it is on the path to financial recovery. I expect the government to just keep a watchful eye on the management to that extent. Beyond that, I don’t think there will be any attempt to do any back-seat driving or try to manage the operations. There are already a pair of government companies, and the government has its hands full — it has no need or desire to get another government company in the telecom space.

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Pathway For Government To Extract Value

The government has already indicated its intention to do this conversion via the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India. In that sense, the pathway also stands established. The equity is with the government and SUUTI is an instrumentality to hold that equity. At any point when the financial health of Vodafone Idea is seen as adequate, be that one month from now or 10 years, SUUTI could start putting the stake into the open market in a staggered manner, as has been done with other SUUTI private-sector holdings. That’s the pathway that seems a possibility at some time in the future where the government would have got its revenue.

Shift In Market Dynamics

The single most important factor in this situation would be the market conditions in the telecom sector. For a long time, the conditions were not conducive to raising tariffs. Now, that has happened in December 2019 and then again very recently. Many argue this has significantly altered the profitability and viability of the operators.

Also important is that the government has declared its intention of trying to strike a balance in the future between getting revenue and ensuring that the benefits of the telecom revolution are passed on to people, with greater use of 5G, smartphones, broadband, etc. That could mark a shift by the government from an emphasis on getting direct revenues here and now at various points—whether that is spectrum auction, licensing, etc.—to a more calibrated approach where the effort is to balance between direct revenues and indirect booster effects on the economy which will again translate into revenue buoyancy as well. That is a better strategy for the government to adopt. It is a mistake, in my opinion, to treat telecom as more important for direct revenue rather than trying to maximise the economic multiplier impact it can have — and the bounce in revenue from such impact. If that hard-to-find balance can be reached—there are all kinds of regulatory and other issues involved—it augurs well… not just for the telecom sector but Vodafone Idea in particular.

R Chandrashekhar is a former Union Telecom Secretary and past President of NASSCOM.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BloombergQuint or its editorial team.