rewrite this title and make it good for SEOEricsson sells Vodafone Idea stake worth Rs 428 crore via bulk deal

Ericsson India Pvt Ltd has sold off its around 0.6% stake in Vodafone Idea (Vi) via a bulk deal to undisclosed buyers, raising Rs 428.43 crore. As per NSE bulk deal data, Ericsson India sold 63.37 crore shares in Vi at Rs 6.76 apiece Tuesday.

Buyer details were not immediately available. Shares of Vi closed 3.69% lower at Rs 6.78 on the BSE Tuesday. At press time, Vi and Ericsson India did not respond to ET’s queries.

The Ericsson stake sale comes just over a month after Nokia Solutions and Networks India Pvt Ltd had sold off its 0.95% stake in Vi in late-April via a similar bulk deal to marquee global investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, amongst others, raising Rs 785.67 crore. Nokia Solutions and Networks India had sold 102.7 crore shares in Vi at Rs 7.65 apiece.

Last year, Vi had allotted 63.37 crore shares to Ericsson via a preferential issue at Rs 14.80 a share to clear a portion (read: Rs 938 crore) of its dues to the Swedish networks vendor. Likewise, it had also allotted 102.7 crore equity shares to Nokia via the preferential issue at Rs14.80 a share to clear about half (read: Rs 1,520 crore) of its dues to the Finnish network solutions major.

The exercise was part of Vi’s plans to raise up to Rs 2,458 crore via a preferential share issue to its vendors, Nokia and Ericsson to clear a portion of their pending dues.

Consequently, Nokia Solutions and Networks India and Ericsson India had acquired 1.47% and 0.9% stakes in Vi respectively, post-allotment of the equity shares.“But after the government recently boosted its holding in Vi to 49%, Nokia and Ericsson’s stakes had got diluted to around 0.95% and a shade below 0.6% respectively,” a person aware of the details said.The government had recently converted Rs 36,950 crore of Vi’s outstanding spectrum dues into equity shares, which boosted its stake in the telco to 49% from 22.6% previously. The conversion will reduce Vi’s statutory liabilities and is slated to give it some cash flow relief over the next three years.