Vodafone Idea denies stake sale to Elon Musk’s Starlink, stock plunges nearly 6%

India’s third largest telecom company, the troubled Vodafone Idea — owned partly by Vodafone Plc., the Indian government and Aditya Birla Group — wrote in a filing to the stock exchanges, denying any talks of stake sale to Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Several unvalidated media reports earlier suggested that Vodafone Idea (branded as ‘vi’ in India) could see the Indian government selling its 33% stake to Elon Musk’s Starlink. This came on the backdrop of the recently passed Indian telecom law, which now allows foreign satellite broadband players to enter the country’s fiercely contested internet market. The law now paves the way for the likes of Starlink and Jeff Bezos’ Kuiper, to enter the world’s fastest growing internet market.

“We would like to submit that the company is not in any such discussion with the named party,” said Vodafone Idea in an exchange filing.

The company’s stock, which has been trading in a volatile fashion on the exchanges for a while, rallied nearly 35% in a couple of days on the news. The price started climbing down in an accelerated manner as soon as the official statement came out. Earlier, stock exchanges had sought a clarification from the company on the circulating news.