Idea shareholders approve new name 'Vodafone Idea Ltd', Rs 15,000 cr fund raise plan

New Delhi: Shareholders of telecom operator Idea Cellular approved the new name ‘Vodafone Idea Limited’ for the company and plans to raise Rs 15,000 crore fund in the extraordinary general meeting held on Tuesday. The change in the name will be effective post completion of merger of Vodafone India in the company, as per the agenda placed before shareholders at the EGM. The summary of EGM proceedings filed at the BSE said that the agenda “change in name of the company” and “issue of non-convertible securities on private placement basis” were “passed with requisite majority” by the members. [caption id=“attachment_4139839” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Idea Cellular approved the new name ‘Vodafone Idea Limited’ for the company[/caption] Idea and Vodafone India are in process of merging their businesses. According to official sources, the approval for merger by the Department of Telecom (DoT) is in final stages. The closure of this transaction, however, is likely to miss expected time line of 30 June as the DoT is looking to raise demand of around Rs 4,700 crore from Vodafone India before clearing the deal. Idea’s Chairman of the board Kumar Mangalam Birla, proposed to be the non-executive Chairman of merged entity, was not present at the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Idea’s MD and CEO Himanshu Kapania. Vodafone is expected to own 45.1 percent, 26 percent by Aditya Birla Group and Idea shareholders will own 28.9 in the combined entity. The merged entity will have around 430 million mobile subscribers from Day 1. Besides, change in name, the EGM approved raising of Rs 15,000 crore fund by the company through NCDs on private placement basis within a year. Shares of Idea closed up 3.02 percent at Rs 57.9 per unit at the BSE.