Debt repayment: Vodafone sells 1.3-billion-euro stake in Vantage Towers
Vodafone sells further shares in the radio tower operator to two US financial investors. The aim is to reduce debt. The Group's reorganization continues.
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The British telecommunications group Vodafone has sold a ten percent stake in the radio tower operator Vantage Towers worth 1.3 billion euros to the infrastructure investors KKR & Co. and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). Vodafone intends to reduce debt in this way.
The sale is part of a deal announced in November 2022, writes the news agency Bloomberg. At that time, the aforementioned US investors acquired a stake in the Düsseldorf-based Vodafone subsidiary Vantage Towers. As part of the agreement, Vodafone contributed its almost 82 percent stake in the radio tower company to a joint venture with KKR and GIP and has continued to sell shares ever since. With the latest sale, Vodafone has now raised a total of 6.6 billion euros, as the company announced on Monday. The sale means that Vodafone now owns 50 percent of the Oak Holdings joint venture, as envisaged in the original agreement.
Vodafone spun off its passive mobile infrastructure, i.e. radio towers, masts and buildings, to its subsidiary Vantage Towers in 2019 and successfully floated it on the stock exchange in March 2021. The Group then went looking for partners. As other network operators are also selling their infrastructure and are open to investors, there have since been talks about a possible merger with the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary Deutsche Funkturm.
Vodafone separates itself from business areas
As Bloomberg writes, European telecoms operators are generally looking for ways to make money as they struggle to make a return on their huge capital investments. Many companies have sold shares or their entire infrastructure business to raise capital.
Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle, who took over after the resignation of CEO Nick Read last year, is working to streamline the group. As part of this strategy, Vodafone has disposed of "underperforming markets". According to Bloomberg, the restructuring plan includes the sale of business units in Spain and Italy as well as a planned merger of networks with the Three mobile group of the Chinese holding company CK Hutchison in the UK. The merger is currently being examined by the British competition authority. In Germany, on the other hand, Vodafone is spending more money to improve its fixed-line internet. The telecommunications group also intends to further expand its 5G mobile network in Germany.
(akn)
