Vodafone is contemplating its largest round of job losses in five years as the British telecom firm strives to rein in expenses and improve its lagging performance.

Vodafone plans to eliminate several hundred positions, the most of which will be at its London headquarters.

After reporting a decline in profits for the first half of the year, the corporation stated in November that it will reduce expenses by more than $1 billion by 2026.

Vodafone employs over 104000 people worldwide, including 9400 in the United Kingdom.

During the past few difficult years, the valuations of a number of the industry’s biggest telecom companies have dropped significantly.

This includes British Telecom and Vodafone in the United Kingdom, Telefónica and Orange in Spain and France, respectively.

Despite the government converting a substantial portion of the company’s debt into equity and facing an unclear future, Vodafone’s business in India has also been under pressure over the past several years.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Vodafone Idea, the Indian arm of the business, has requested at least $846 million in emergency financing from local banks. However, domestic banks were unwilling to issue new loans.

To sustain operations, the company requires funds.

The lenders will wait until either a capital increase by the operator’s key shareholders — the UK-based Vodafone Group and the regional investor Aditya Birla Group — or a debt-to-equity conversion by the government before giving extra cash, sources told Reuters.

“Without this (capital injection), it appears difficult for the company to…survive,” a state-owned bank executive told Reuters.