Popular telecom services firm Vi has approached multiple lenders to raise over Rs 7,000 crore in debt, The Economic Times reported on January 6. A major part of the loan amount will be used to pay the dues owed to Indus Towers, the statement said.
Vi seems to have asked several prominent banks and lending institutions to provide Rs 15,000 crore in bank guarantees and fresh loans. But recently Vi has been operating with a negative net worth of around 75,830.8 crores.
As banking systems cannot give loans to a company with a negative net worth which means loss, there is only rejection everywhere, this loan was not started today or yesterday.
Loss-making UK’s Vodafone and India’s Aditya Birla Group (APG) launched a new joint venture called vi in 2020. A contract was entered into with Indus Towers for the same. But Vi is running at a loss and Tower is not paying the right amount.
Last year Indus had warned that Vi would cut off its access to tower sites if payment was not made. Later the telco offered a deferred payment plan which was accepted by the tower company.
Tower has accordingly promised to pay 100 per cent of its current dues to the company from January onwards. According to the report, Vi’s dues to Indus have risen to around Rs 7,500 crore.
The monthly payment by Vi to Tower is estimated at Rs 250-300 crore. When there is no money to pay this, they go to banks and financial institutions asking for loans.
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