Crippled by debt, Vodafone Idea’s ₹18,000 crore follow-on offering (FPO) picked up massive momentum on Friday and now it is being reported that close to half of the issue has been subscribed – mostly by institutional investors.

Overall, Vodafone Idea FPO has garnered ₹12,000 crore of which some ₹5,400 crore has come from anchor investors. And this is the case at just the end of the 2nd day, reveals a PTI report.

The Vodafone Idea FPO has put as many as 1,260 crore shares on offer, and as many as 617.46 crore have been subscribed, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) data shows.

Apart from the anchor and institutional investors, even the Qualified institutional buyers have jumped on the bandwagon and acquired some 93 per cent of the 360 crore shares reserved for them. Non-institutional investors bought as much as 75 per cent of the 270 crore shares allocated for them.

However, the most tepid response has come in from retail investors as they have picked up just 13 per cent of 630 crore shares earmarked for them. This is despite the fact that they have been offered the biggest chunk.

Trailing its larger rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, the fund drive will give Vodafone Idea a breather from its large debt, some funds to boost infrastructure and even focus more on 5G services.

The break up

About ₹12,750 crore from the FPO will go towards purchase of equipment for the expansion of its network infrastructure; some ₹5,720 crore will go towards network expansion on setting up its 5G network; ₹2,175.31 crore will go toward making deferred payments for spectrum. Then, whatever is left, will be used as working capital.