Vodafone to list India unit in August
Vodafone Group is likely to file a draft prospectus for a planned listing of its Indian business in August ahead of a market debut in the fourth quarter of 2016, in a deal expected to raise as much as $2.5 billion, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Vodafone’s plans come against the backdrop of an 18 per cent rise in India’s broader share market index NSE in the past four months, which has boosted the outlook for new share sales in the near-term.
The company had been expected to aim for early next year for the listing, set to be India’s biggest since 2010.
The British telecom group, India’s largest mobile operator after Bharti Airtel, has begun work on the prospectus that would include the Indian division’s financial results for the first half of the calendar year, the people said.
A London-based Vodaf-one spokesman declined to comment on the timeline, saying the potential IPO for Indian unit was a lengthy process and no decision would be made until the company was at the end of it.
Sources said that the exact timing of the IPO would depend on local stock market conditions.
Vodafone had first raised the prospect of a listing in India in 2011. It said in November 2015 it had started preparations for a float.