Vodafone Idea will have to ‘shut shop’: Kumar Mangalam Birla’s startling admission

Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla today sounded alarm bells on the future of India’s third largest telecom services operator Vodafone-Idea, saying that the company will have to shut down if it doesn’t get any more relief from the government. “We will shut shop if we don’t get relief, it could be the end of the story for us. There is no company in world that could get that kind of money in three months. It’s a very sad thing to happen though I don’t want that to happen,”KM Birla said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2019. Veteran industrialist K M Birla’s comments come close on the heels of his telecom venture’s overseas partner Vodafone CEO Nick Read’s remarks on similar lines earlier last month. “If you don’t get the remedies being suggested, the situation is critical. If you’re not a going concern, you’re moving into a liquidation scenario—can’t get any clearer than that,” Vodafone CEO Nick Read had said at a press round-table in London, but later said that his comments had been taken out of context by the media.