US investment major Citigroup acquired shares in struggling telecom company Vodafone Idea Ltd. for Rs 611 crore, after the local arm of American Tower Corp. divested its entire stake via open market transactions on Friday.
Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Pvt. purchased 49.12 crore shares at Rs 12.7 apiece, according to bulk deal data on the NSE. It represents 0.98% equity in the Aditya Birla Group company.
ATC Telecom Infrastructure Pvt. offloaded 144 crore shares, or 2.95%, for Rs 1,840 crore. The shares were sold at Rs 12.78 apiece.
NDTV Profit had earlier reported that ATC sold its entire holding in the ailing telecom operator, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
ATC, in March, converted 14,400 optionally convertible debentures into fully paid-up equity shares for Rs 1,440 crore. Vodafone Idea issued Rs 1,600 crore OCDs to the company in February 2023, after receiving approval from stakeholders and stock exchanges.
The telecom player raised Rs 18,000 crore through a follow-on public offer. The shares were listed on the exchanges on Thursday. Apart from GQG, other marquee investors like Fidelity Funds and Redwheel Funds subscribed to the offer through the anchor book. The Aditya Birla Group invested Rs 2,075 crore in this fundraise as well.
Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said that his cement-to-telecom conglomerate, along with Vodafone Group Plc., have invested nearly Rs 1.7 lakh crore in Vodafone Idea and the Indian telecom industry.
“Before this FPO, in the last five years, out of Rs 30,000 crore raised by the company, more than 75% has come from the two promoter groups,” Birla said.
Shares of Vodafone Idea parred losses and closed 0.86% higher at Rs 14.01 apiece, as compared with a 0.82% fall in the benchmark BSE Sensex. The stock had declined as much as 8.6% on Friday morning.
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