Vodafone may sell part of Indus stake to fund Vodafone Idea

Kolkata | Mumbai: Vodafone Group Plc is considering selling a small portion of its 28.12% stake in Indus Towers to inject capital into its ailing Indian telecom joint venture, Vodafone Idea (Vi). This comes even as Vodafone Idea’s potential global lenders are pressing the telco’s co-promoters — the UK telecom major and India’s Aditya Birla Group — for some capital infusion to improve their overall comfort levels, three people with direct knowledge said.

The Vodafone Group has previously said that it would not infuse any fresh equity into Vi. But its stake in the now-listed Indus Towers is an existing and separate telecom-related investment in India, which may make it easier for the British telco to convince shareholders, if required, one of the people told ET.