BENGALURU: U.S. wireless carrier Verizon Communications Inc and Amazon.com Inc may invest more than $4 billion for a stake in India’s Vodafone Idea Ltd, the Mint newspaper reported on Thursday.
The struggling Indian telecom firm’s shares rose as much as 30%.
The news comes days after India’s top court ruled that mobile carriers must settle government dues within 10 years, giving Vodafone Idea some reprieve in a case it had said could affect its ability to continue as a going concern.
Vodafone Idea, a joint venture between Britain’s Vodafone Group and India’s Idea Cellular, still owes roughly $6.8 billion to the Indian government.
Vodafone Idea’s stake-sale talks had been paused pending the court ruling, but Amazon and Verizon are now set to resume them, Mint reported, citing two people aware of the negotiations. (https://bit.ly/356USDD)
Amazon and Verizon did not respond to Reuters requests for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.
The Tuesday ruling gives Vodafone Idea — India’s third largest telecom firm by subscribers — some respite but analysts say the loss-making company’s financial pressures persist.
Shares in Vodafone Idea hit a more than one-year high before closing up 26.77% amid a flurry of news about its fundraising plans.
CNBC-TV18 reported Vodafone Idea could “take stock” of a sale of its optic fibre business at a Friday board meeting scheduled to discuss fundraising plans.
Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc and private equity group KKR & Co Inc were contenders for the business, CNBC-TV18 said.
Vodafone Idea was planning to raise about $1.5 billion and was working with advisers as it seeks investors, Bloomberg News reported.
Vodafone Idea and KKR declined to comment, while a representative for Brookfield did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
Comments
0 comment