The debt-ridden telecom major Vodafone Idea Ltd has got a sigh of relief as a group of lenders led by State Bank of India agreed to provide about $3.5 billion of debt financing. This will help Vodafone Idea Ltd. to its business, a report by Bloomberg said citing people familiar with the matter. As per the report, conditions regarding the funding include billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla remaining as chairman throughout the tenure of the loan, which is nearly 10 years, and guarantees of repayment in case of default. Other local lenders in the consortium include Union Bank of India Ltd. and the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Vodafone Idea, the country’s third-biggest wireless operator in terms of users but still loss-making, plans to use some funds to improve its network and better compete with Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the people said. Earlier, it was reported that the telecom operator Vodafone Idea is set to raise funds from a consortium of public sector banks led by State Bank of India. It also includes Indian private sector lenders and foreign lenders through external commercial borrowings, CEO Abhijit Kishore said, as reported by the Economic Times. The funding includes Rs 1,183 crore raised through warrant proceeds, along with debt funding and non-funded facilities from ECBs and Indian private banks, the report said. During the first quarter of the financial year 2027 (FY27), Vodafone Idea posted a narrower loss of Rs 3,754 crore compared with Rs 6,608 crore in the same quarter of the previous financial year. The revenue from operations grew about 6 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 11,689 crore from Rs 11,023 crore. Vikas Kumar is Deputy Editor (Business) at Times Now driving coverage across policy, economy and markets. He possesses nearly a decade of experience i... View More