Vodafone Idea shares trim most of early gains; settle nearly 4% higher

New Delhi: Shares of Vodafone Idea trimmed most of their sharp early gains and ended nearly 4 per cent higher on Monday after the firm awarded contracts worth about Rs 30,000 crore to Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung for supply of 4G and 5G network equipment for three years.

The stock surged 11.73 per cent to Rs 11.71 during the day on the BSE. Later, it ended at Rs 10.83, up 3.34 per cent, giving up most of the early gains.

On the NSE, shares of the firm ended at Rs 10.86, up 3.72 per cent after soaring 14 per cent to Rs 11.94 in intra-day trade.

In terms of volume, 1,502.39 lakh shares of the firm were traded on the BSE and 16,824.75 lakh shares on the NSE during the day.

It is the largest deal awarded by any Indian telecom operator during this year.

The deal also marks the first step towards the roll-out of the company's three-year capex (capital expenditure) plan of about USD 6.6 billion or Rs 55,000 crore announced earlier.

"Vodafone Idea (VIL) has concluded a mega, about USD 3.6 billion (around Rs 300 billion), deal with Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung for supply of network equipment over a period of three years. The capex programme is directed towards expanding the 4G population coverage from 1.03 billion to 1.2 billion, launching 5G in key markets and capacity expansion in line with data growth," the company said in a statement on Sunday.

The supplies against these new long-term awards will start in the coming quarter.

The top priority for the company is to expand the 4G coverage to 1.2 billion Indians, the statement said.

VIL CEO Akshaya Moondra said that the company has started the investment cycle and it is on the journey of VIL 2.0.

"From hereon, VIL will stage a smart turnaround to effectively participate in the industry growth opportunities. Nokia and Ericsson have been our partners since our inception and this marks another milestone in that continuing partnership. We are pleased to start our new partnership with Samsung. We look forward to work closely with all our partners as we move into the 5G era," Moondra said.