New Sale at Vodafone: 10 Percent Stake in Vantage Towers Sold

Vodafone has announced the sale of an additional 10% stake in a leading European mobile tower company for €1.3 billion, as CEO Margherita Della Valle continues to streamline the sprawling telecommunications group. The sale of the stake in Vantage Towers to a consortium of long-term infrastructure investors, led by Global Infrastructure Partners and KKR, results in a 50/50 ownership structure and assists the telecommunications company in reducing its debt. Through the latest transaction, the total net proceeds from stake sales in Vantage amount to €6.6 billion, following an initial transaction that took place in 2022. The stake was sold at the same price of €32 per share. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia financed the deal in 2022. Vantage Towers operates tens of thousands of mobile towers in ten European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. The UK-based company stated that the proceeds from the sale would be used to reduce its debt and lower its net debt ratio to bring it into the lower half of the target range. The announcement comes amid a phase of continued asset sales by the group. In March, the FTSE 100-listed company agreed to sell its Italian operations to Swisscom for €8 billion. This followed the sale of Vodafone Spain for up to €5 billion to Zegona Communications, founded by two former Virgin Media executives, which was announced in October. In May, Vodafone reported that its net debt, excluding Spanish and Italian business units, amounted to €33.2 billion. Vodafone and Three UK confirmed plans for a domestic merger in June 2023, which is currently being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority. At the time of the Italian exit announcement, Vodafone stated it would return up to €4 billion to shareholders through buybacks and reduce the dividend to 4.5 cents per share starting in 2025, down from nine cents in this fiscal year.