Vodafone Idea Ltd. Company History and Annual Growth Details

Our Company was incorporated as ‘Birla Communications Limited’, a public limited company under the Companies Act, 1956 with a certificate of incorporation issued by the Registrar of Companies, Maharashtra at Mumbai on March 14, 1995 and a certificate of commencement of business on August 11, 1995. Pursuant to a joint venture agreement dated December 5, 1995 between AT&T Corporation and Grasim Industries Limited, the name of our Company was changed to ‘Birla AT&T Communications Limited’ and a fresh certificate of incorporation was issued by the Registrar of Companies, Maharashtra at Mumbai on May 30, 1996. The name of our Company was subsequently changed to ‘Birla Tata AT&T Limited’ and a fresh certificate of incorporation was issued by the RoC on November 6, 2001 pursuant to a shareholders agreement dated December 15, 2000 entered into between Grasim Industries Limited on behalf of the Aditya Birla group, Tata Industries Limited on behalf of the TATA Group and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. on behalf of the AWS Group which replaced the joint venture agreement between AT&T Corporation and Grasim Industries Limited. Further, pursuant to the introduction of the Idea brand, the name of our Company was changed to ‘Idea Cellular Limited’ and a fresh certificate of incorporation was issued by the RoC on May 1, 2002. Thereafter, pursuant to amalgamation of VMSL and Vodafone India with our Company, the name of our Company was changed to its present name ‘Vodafone Idea Limited’, and a fresh certificate of incorporation was issued by the RoC on August 31, 2018.

Major events and milestones:

1995

• Incorporated as Birla Communications Limited

• Obtained CMTS licenses for providing services in the Gujarat and Maharashtra circles

1996

Changed name to Birla AT&T Communications Limited

1997

Commenced commercial operations in the Gujarat and Maharashtra service areas

2000

Merger of Tata Cellular Limited with the Company, thereby acquiring original license for the Andhra Pradesh Circle

2001

• Acquired RPG Cellcom Limited and consequently the license for the Madhya Pradesh

• Changed name to Birla Tata AT&T Limited

• Obtained CMTS license for providing services in the Delhi circle

2002

• Changed name to Idea Cellular Limited and developed the “Idea” brand name

• Commenced commercial operations in Delhi circle

2004

• Acquired Escotel Mobile Communications Limited

• First cellular operator in India to commercially launch EDGE services

2006

• Became part of the Aditya Birla group subsequent to the TATA group transferring its entire shareholding in the Company to the Aditya Birla group

• Acquired Escorts Telecommunications Limited

• Obtained UASL for the Mumbai and Bihar circles

2007

Initial public offering by the Company

2008

• Obtained UASL for nine service areas

• Acquired Spice Communications Limited with licences for operating service areas of Punjab and Karnataka

• Preferential allotment of Equity Shares to TMI Mauritius Ltd., an affiliate of Axiata Group, aggregating to approximately ?72,945 million

2009

Became a pan-India operator

2010

Allotted 3G spectrum in 11 service areas in India

2011

Launched 3G services in 20 service areas through combination of home network and roaming arrangements

2012

Launched ISP services

2014

• Completed ‘Qualified Institutions Placement’ (QIP), aggregating to ? 30,000 million

• Preferential allotment of Equity Shares to Axiata Investments 2 (India) Limited, an affiliate of Axiata Group aggregating to ?7,500 million

2015

Launched 4G services in 4 southern circles in December 2015.

2016

Expanded 4G services to 10 service areas

2018

• Preferential allotment to Promoters and Promoter Group aggregating to ?32,500 million

• Completed ‘Qualified Institutions Placement’ (QIP), aggregating to ?35,000 million

• Completed the merger of Vodafone India and VMSL with our Company

• Name of the Company was changed from ‘Idea Cellular Limited’ to ‘Vodafone Idea Limited’

2019

• Completed a rights issue for an amount aggregating to ?249,998 million

• Demerger and transfer of fibre undertaking held by the Company to our Company’s wholly owned subsidiary

• Orders from Supreme Court to our Company and other telecom companies to pay AGR dues

2020

• Sold 11.15% stake in Indus Towers Limited at a consideration of ?37,642 million, pursuant to merger of Indus Towers Limited with Bharti Infratel Limited

• Launch of new unified ‘Vi’ Brand

2021

• Acquired 23.6 MHz spectrum in 900 and 1800 MHz in certain service areas for aggregate value of ?19,934 million

• Announcement of Telecom Reforms Package by the Government of India for the telecom sector addressing the structural, procedural and liquidity issues, arising due to the AGR judgment

2022

• Preferential allotment to our Promoters and Promoter Group for an amount aggregating to ?45,000 million

• Acquired 6,237 MHz spectrum across 2,100 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz in the 5 Spectrum Auction for an aggregate value of ?187,836 million

• Preferential allotment of convertible warrants to our Promoter for an amount aggregating to ?4,362 million

2023

• Conversion of convertible warrants issued to our Promoter to equity shares for an amount aggregating to ?4,362 million

• Issuance of OCDs to ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited for an amount aggregating to ?16,000 million

• Issued equity shares aggregating to ?161,332 million representing 33.1% of equity capital of the Company to Government of India pursuant to conversion of loan representing NPV of the interest related to deferment of spectrum auction instalments and AGR dues into equity shares