Telecoms giant Vodafone announced on Friday, March 15, that it has agreed to sell its Italian unit to Swisscom for eight billion euros ($8.7 billion) in cash, completing efforts to overhaul the UK group’s European operations, according to a report by AFP.
The UK group said it intends to return four billion euros to shareholders following the sales of its Italian and Spanish businesses, which together total 12 billion euros. Vodafone, which previously rejected offers from French billionaire Xavier Niel’s Iliad group for the unit, has been on a cost-cutting campaign that has included layoffs and the offloading of divisions abroad, said the report.
Swisscom said in a separate statement that it would merge Vodafone Italia with its own Italian subsidiary, Fastweb. The UK group said it intends to return four billion euros to shareholders following the sales of its Italian and Spanish businesses, which together total 12 billion euros.
Vodafone chief executive Margherita Della Valle said that the deal with Swisscom marked the “third and final step in the reshaping of our European operations”. The transaction – which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025, will be paid in cash and financed by debt.
“The industrial logic of this merger is very strong,” said Swisscom CEO Christoph Aeschlimann. “Fastweb and Vodafone Italia are an ideal fit to create high added value for all stakeholders.”
Share prices of the two companies jumped following the announcement, with Vodafone up more than four per cent in London and Swisscom rising more than three per cent on the Swiss stock exchange at midday.
Meanwhile, Britain’s competition regulator is investigating Vodafone’s plan to merge its British mobile phone operations with those of Three UK, owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison. Vodafone also completed the sale of its Hungarian unit last year, according to the report.