KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 23): Axiata Group Bhd said its non-participation in Idea Cellular’s qualified institutional placement (QIP) of 424.24 million shares will dilute its shareholding in the Indian associate company to 16.34% from 18.1%.

This in turn will result in an additional estimated loss of RM240.7 million for Axiata for the financial year ending December 31, 2018 (FY18), the group said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.

This comes on top of the dilution loss of RM151.5 million arising from the previous preferential issuance of shares by Idea, which was announced in January.

The group said the estimated loss on dilution is expected to have a material impact on its earnings per share (EPS) for FY18.

Based on its net profit of RM909.48 million or 10.1 sen per share recorded in FY17, Axiata said the two issuances will reduce its EPS to 5.8 sen.

In March 2017, Idea had proposed a composite scheme of amalgamation and arrangement with Vodafone India Ltd and Vodafone Mobile Services Ltd to facilitate a merger with Vodafone India.

Under the scheme, Ideas will issue 50% of its shares to the shareholders of Vodafone.

The exercise forms part of Idea’s capital raising exercise of 67.5 billion rupees under the preferential issuance and another 35 billion rupees through the QIP.

Axiata closed down 2 sen or 0.35% at RM5.65, giving it a market capitalisation of RM51.12 billion.