Tag: Department of Telecommunications

DoT may return Rs 14,000-crore bank guarantees to Vodafone Idea, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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MUMBAI: The government plans to return bank guarantees worth Rs 14,000 crore to Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Rs 8,000 crore to Bharti Airtel if they opt for a four-year moratorium on payment of spectrum dues, a person aware of the development said.

The development is expected to drastically reduce Vodafone Idea’s non-fund exposure to banks that have been hesitant to furnish fresh bank guarantees (BGs) to the loss-making telco due to its precarious financial position.

“BGs in deferred annual instalment against spectrum bought in earlier auction will be returned to telcos opting for moratorium,” the source told ET. “Vi stands to get about Rs 14,000 crore and Airtel about Rs 8,000 crore.”

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal on Thursday said the telco will opt for the moratorium while cash-strapped Vodafone Idea too is widely expected to opt for it.

Experts said return of bank guarantees will allow banks more leeway to lend to Vodafone Idea in the future.

“A large part of our exposure (to Vi) is towards bank guarantees to the DoT (Department of Telecommunications),” a lender said on the condition of anonymity. “If those are returned, it gets cancelled and our exposure towards Vodafone Idea will drop significantly.”

Re-rating of the company could also lead to refinancing of existing loans at lower rates.

“We will have to see how this evolves, but in all likelihood, when the operating metrics of the telco improves, we will be able to offer them lower rates and rework loan covenants depending on how the cash flow situation improves,” the lender said.

Banks have a total exposure of a little over Rs 35,000 crore to the company, of which funded exposure is close to Rs 13,800 crore while the remaining is non-funded.

Vodafone Idea had a gross debt of Rs 1.9 lakh crore at June end – mostly in obligations to the government towards deferred spectrum charges and adjusted gross revenues (AGR)-related dues – while its cash and cash equivalents are only Rs 920 crore.

The government on Wednesday rolled out a four-year moratorium on the statutory dues of telcos and opened up the automatic route for 100% foreign direct investment in the sector, which is expected to help attract global investors.

Bank guarantees have long been a bone of contention between telcos and DoT.

Airtel’s Mittal has been propagating scrapping the practice of taking BGs. “Bank guarantee is something which the DoT must reconsider because those are from historical times,” he had told ET in a recent interview. “Now that you have exposure of tens of thousands of crores of spectrum payments to these operators without any such instruments, why bother about these small bank guarantees?”

Mittal also pointed out that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms mandate provisioning of that much capital allocation, thus reducing the capital pool, and the cost of bank guarantee has quadrupled.

The government had on Wednesday cut bank guarantee requirements against statutory dues such as licensee fees to 20% from 100%, and said the financial instrument won’t be required anymore to secure instalment payments in upcoming auctions.

This was over and above a four-year moratorium on AGR and spectrum payments, approved redefining AGR to exclude ‘non-telecom’ items and cut the spectrum usage charge (SUC) to zero — both prospectively — as part of wide-ranging reforms to improve the health of the debt-laden sector and make sure the market has at least three private players.

Vi stock has jumped about 30% in two days to close at Rs 11.25 on the BSE on Thursday.

Govt can also turn part of dues into equity after four-year period.



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Banks to DoT, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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Conversion of debt of the stressed telecom player Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) into equity could be an option to emerge out of the crisis, lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) have suggested to Department of Telecommunications (DoT). DoT had called senior bank officials on Friday to discuss the stress in the telecom sector arising out of the Supreme Court order last month on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues payable by telecom majors, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, sources said.

The top court has given a time period of 10 years to telecom service providers struggling to pay Rs 93,520 crore of AGR-related dues to clear their outstanding amount to the government.

Bankers also told senior DoT officials that conversion of debt of VIL into equity is an option but not a sustainable one, sources said, adding that since VIL had not defaulted on its debts so far, they cannot take any action yet.

In a bid to keep a company a going concern, banks have used the option of converting debt into equity in many stress cases in the past.

Capital infusion by promoters is the best option in the given scenario, sources said quoting bankers.

The UK-based Vodafone has a 45 per cent stake while Aditya Birla Group owns a 27 per cent stake in the VIL.

Lenders, both public and private, stare at a loss of Rs 1.8 lakh crore in case VIL collapses. A large part of the loans to the lender is in the form of guarantees with public sector banks having a lion’s share of the debt.

Among the private sector lenders, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank may be impacted the most. As a precursor, some private lenders with a funded exposure have already started making provisions.

For example, IDFC First Bank has marked the account of VIL as stressed and has made provisions of 15 per cent ( Rs 487 crore) against the outstanding exposure of Rs 3,244 crore (funded and non-funded).

“This provision translates to 24 per cent of the funded exposure on this account. The said account is current and has no overdues as of June 30, 2021,” the lender had said in its Q1 FY’22 investor presentation, referring to the account as “one large telecom account”.

According to official data, VIL had an AGR liability of Rs 58,254 crore out of which the company has paid Rs 7,854.37 crore and Rs 50,399.63 crore is outstanding.

The company’s gross debt, excluding lease liabilities, stood at Rs 1,80,310 crore as of March 31, 2021. The amount included deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 96,270 crore and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs 23,080 crore apart from the AGR liability.

In a backdrop of such large liabilities, both the promoter Vodafone (45 per cent stake) and Aditya Birla Group (27 per cent stake) expressed their inability to bring in additional capital.

Writing a letter to Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba in June, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said investors are not willing to invest in the company in the absence of clarity on AGR liability, adequate moratorium on spectrum payments and most importantly floor pricing regime being above the cost of service.

“It is with a sense of duty towards the 27 crore Indians connected by VIL, I am more than willing to hand over my stake in the company to any entity-public sector/government /domestic financial entity or any other that the government may consider worthy of keeping the company as a going concern,” Birla said in the letter.

Birla has quit the post of non-executive chairman post of the floundering telecom giant last week. PTI DP ANZ ANS ANS



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Banks set for higher provisioning hit as Vodafone Idea totters, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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Banks are going for higher provisioning for the Vodafone Idea account even as the future of the company hangs by a thread.

IDFC First Bank has marked the account of VIL as stressed and has made provisions of 15 per cent (Rs 487 crore) against the outstanding exposure of Rs 3,244 crore (funded and non-funded).

“This provision translates to 24 per cent of the funded exposure on this account. The said account is current and has no overdues as of June 30, 2021,” the lender said in its Q1 FY’22 investor presentation, referring to the account as “one large telecom account”.

According to official data, VIL had an adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liability of Rs 58,254 crore out of which the company has paid Rs 7,854.37 crore and Rs 50,399.63 crore is outstanding.

The company’s gross debt, excluding lease liabilities, stood at Rs 1,80,310 crore as of March 31, 2021. The amount included deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 96,270 crore and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs 23,080 crore apart from the AGR liability.

More banks may go for provisioning in the next couple of quarters for the account as troubles mount for the company.

Discussions with banks

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has initiated discussions with banks to address financial stress in the telecom sector, particularly Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) that urgently requires fund infusion to stay afloat.

There was a meeting of DOT officials and senior bankers on Friday on the issue of Vodafone, sources said, adding that banks have been asked to look for a solution within the prudential guidelines.

According to sources, senior officials from the country’s biggest lenders State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda were also present among others in the meeting.

More such meetings are expected to take place in the coming days, they said.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry has asked public sector banks to collate and submit data related to their debt exposure to the telecom sector in general and VIL in particular.

Lenders, both public and private, stare at a loss of Rs 1.8 lakh crore in case VIL collapses. A large part of the loans to the lender is in the form of guarantees with public sector banks having a lion’s share of the debt. Among the private-sector lenders, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank may be impacted the most. As a precursor, some private lenders with a funded exposure have already started making provisions.

Promoters in bind

In a backdrop of such large liabilities, both the promoter Vodafone Plc (45 per cent stake) and Aditya Birla Group (27 per cent stake) expressed their inability to bring in additional capital.

Writing a letter to Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba in June, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said investors are not willing to invest in the company in the absence of clarity on AGR liability, adequate moratorium on spectrum payments and most importantly floor pricing regime being above the cost of service.

“It is with a sense of duty towards the 27 crore Indians connected by VIL, I am more than willing to hand over my stake in the company to any entity-public sector/government /domestic financial entity or any other that the government may consider worthy of keeping the company as a going concern,” Birla said in the letter.

Birla has quit the post of non-executive chairman post of the floundering telecom giant last week.

Giving relief to Vodafone on one front, the government has proposed to withdraw all back tax demands on companies with passage of ‘The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021’.



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Bankers in talks as court rulings threaten over $6 billion in loans, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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Informal talks are taking place to deal with the fall-out from two rulings by Supreme Court that threaten the repayment of loans totalling nearly 500 billion rupees ($6.73 billion) to some of India’s largest banks, bankers close to the matter say.

Any failure to recoup the money adds to stress in the banking sector, which is already dealing with an increased level of bad loans and reduced profits because of the impact of the pandemic.

Last week, Supreme Court effectively blocked Future Group’s $3.4 billion sale of retail assets to Reliance Industries, jeopardising nearly $2.69 billion the retail conglomerate owes to Indian banks.

That ruling was delivered days after the Supreme Court rejected a petition to allow telecom companies to approach the Department of Telecommunications to renegotiate outstanding dues in a long-runinng dispute with Indian telecom players.

That raises concerns, bankers say, over whether Vodafone Idea will repay some 300 billion rupees ($4.04 billion) it owes to Indian banks and billions of dollars more in long-term dues to the government.

FUTURE OF FUTURE?

Two bankers, speaking on condition of anonymity said negotiations were taking place to try to limit potentially severe consequences.

Loans to Future worth nearly 200 billion rupees were restructured earlier this year, giving it more time to come up with repayments due over the next two years, but that was on the premise that Reliance would bail it out, the bankers said.

Future group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Should Future be taken to a bankruptcy court, bankers say they are concerned they will have to take haircuts on the loans of more than 75%.

“The immediate apprehension is that the restructuring deal will fall through for banks by December,” said a banker at a public sector bank that has lent money to Future.

Future’s leading financial creditors include India’s largest lender State Bank of India, along with smaller rivals Bank of Baroda and Bank of India.

Bank of India, the lead bank in consortium lending to Future, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

VODAFONE IDEA

Banks have also started discussing Vodafone’s debt to lenders of nearly 300 billion rupees. Top lenders to Vodafone include Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and IndusInd Bank, as well as other private and state-owned lenders.

Vodafone, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and IndusInd did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

“Even though banks have the option of restructuring loans in case the company defaults, it will only make sense if there is clear cash flow visibility, which is not the case right now,” a senior banker at a public sector bank said on condition of anonymity.

Already, at the end of March, Indian banks had total non-performing assets of 8.34 trillion rupees ($112.48 billion), the government has said. It has yet to provide more updated figures.



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