₹18000 cr Vodafone FPO: Big shot in the arm, HDFC MF, Quant MF, Fidelity, others to invest

In what will come as a big shot in the arm of Vodafone Idea, it has been revealed that HDFC MF, Quant MF, Fidelity and others will be participating in its FPO.

In what will come as a big shot in the arm of Vodafone Idea, it has been revealed that HDFC MF, Quant MF, Fidelity and others will be participating in the ₹18,000 crore FPO, which is the largest such offer ever to be rolled out in India, after that of Yes Bank a few years earlier.

Vodafone Idea FPO is slated to open for subscription on April 18.(REUTERS)

According to a report by MoneyControl, a number of domestic and foreign institutional investors, including HDFC Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund, Quant Mutual Fund, GQG Partners, and Fidelity will be investing in the offer. The report was quoting people privy to this information.

Their participation will be through the anchor book allocation of the issue. Vodafone Idea FPO opens for subscription on April 18 but the anchor book allocation is slated for announcement earlier than that. It will likely happen on Tuesday. The same is offered on a discretionary basis. The report quoted one of the sources as saying there is a strong interest in both foreign and domestic institutions for the offer.

However, there is no official response so far from any of these entities on this report about their investment intentions.

Among the dates that investors should keep an eye on is the start of the subscription period on April 18 and thereafter the closing date, which is April 22.

About Vodafone Idea FPO

Vodafone Idea FPO has a fixed price band of ₹10-11 per share and the minimum bid lot is 1,298 equity shares.

How the issue funds will be used

It has been proposed in the offer document by Vodafone Idea that it will use ₹12,750 crore for buying equipment to expand its infrastructure. This includes setting up new 4G sites and expanding capacity of current 4G sites. Notably, the fund will also be used to set up new 5G sites. Notably, for setting up 5G network expansion it will spend ₹5,720 crore out of the ₹12,750 crore.

₹2,175.31 crore from the FPO will go to Department of Telecom for deferred payments and GST.