Idea Cellular Ltd and Vodafone Group Plc’s Indian unit, which are set to merge to create India’s largest telecom operator, will invest Rs60,000 crore in infrastructure to meet surging demand for data, according to a person aware of the matter.

The companies expect demand to surge sixfold to more than 120 petabytes a day in the near term from around 20 petabytes now, this person said, requesting anonymity.

Idea Cellular on Friday announced the closure of its qualified institutional placement (QIP). The company has issued and allotted approximately 42.42 crore equity shares at an issue price of Rs 82.50 per share and raised about Rs 3,500 crore. The issue allocation is approximately 56% and 44% to Indian and foreign investors, respectively, a press release from Idea said.

Mumbai: Idea Cellular has fixed an issue price of Rs 82.50 per share for the sale of shares through a qualified institutional placement (QIP).

The QIP issue will raise as much as Rs 3,500 crore.

NEW DELHI: Idea Cellular today said its capital raising committee has approved an issue price of Rs 82.50 per share for sale of shares through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) to raise as much as Rs 3,500 crore.

"The capital raising committee of the company at its meeting today approved the closure of the issue for the QIP," Idea said in a regulatory filing.

Idea Cellular, the third biggest Indian telco, has silently refreshed the Rs 149 recharge plan that now offers additional validity to the customers. The Idea Rs 149 recharge plan now comes with a 28-day validity offering 1GB data, unlimited local, national, and roaming outgoing calls, and 100 SMSes per day. Earlier, this pack provided the same benefits but only for 21 days. However, the Idea Rs 149 recharge pack is available to select customers in select circles.

Idea Cellular has introduced a new pack that offers 1GB data and unlimited calls at Rs 109 to combat the tariff war started by Reliance and later joined by other telcos including Airtel and Vodafone among others. The new Idea Rs 109 recharge pack comes with a validity of 14 days and benefits the customer with 1GB of data, unlimited local, national, and roaming calls, along with 100 SMSes per day.

Mumbai: Aditya Birla Group expects savings from the merger between group company Idea Cellular Ltd and Vodafone Group Plc’s India unit to be significantly more than the $10 billion it forecast in March last year, group chief financial officer Sushil Agarwal said in an interview.

The benefits accruing out of the Idea-Vodafone merger will increase on account of savings made by both Idea Cellular and Vodafone India Ltd because of synergies in capital and operating expenditure as the group now expects the merger to be completed much before the original deadline of September 2018.

New Delhi: Idea Cellular Ltd’s board of directors has approved the issuance of equity shares worth up to Rs3,500 crore by way of qualified institutional placement (QIP) to eligible investors, the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges on Wednesday.

“The board has authorised the committee of directors to decide on the timing, price and exact quantum of equity shares to be issued,” the company said.

Idea Cellular on Wednesday said it has suspended interconnect services with Aircel because of non-payment of dues by the latter despite repeated reminders. “Despite several reminders for releasing the dues since November 2017, the operator (Aircel) has failed to meet its payment commitments, forcing Idea to suspend interconnect services, as per the terms of interconnect agreement between both parties,” the company said.

Idea Cellular on Tuesday said that it has partnered with domestic handset maker Karbonn to offer cashbacks worth Rs 1,500 and Rs 1,000 on smartphones and feature phones, respectively. This is Karbonn’s second such tie-up. It had partnered with Bharti Airtel last year to offer cashbacks on a select range of smartphones under the operator’s ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ offer.

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