Liberty Global confirmed that it is not considering an offer for Vodafone
Liberty Global announced that it has acquired 1,335 million shares in Vodafone Group representing 4.92% of the outstanding share capital.
In a release, the multinational telecom company noted that the transaction was principally funded through “an attractive non-recourse financing”, requiring equity funding from Liberty Global of approximately £225 million ($274.5 million).
Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global, said: “We believe, like many others, that Vodafone’s current share price does not reflect the underlying long-term value of their operating businesses, or their announced consolidation and infrastructure opportunities. We continue to remain disciplined about our capital and fully expect that the equity used to fund this investment will be replenished with the sale of certain non-core assets over time.”
Liberty Global noted that the transaction does not require regulatory approvals and that the company does not intend to seek board representation at Vodafone.
Liberty Global also confirmed that it is not considering an offer for Vodafone. With the transaction, Liberty Global is now Vodafone’s third-largest shareholder after UAE-based telecoms company e& and BlackRock, an American investment group. French telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel had also acquired a stake in Vodafone in 2022.
Vodafone, which reported worse-than-expected quarterly results earlier this month, did not make any comment regarding the transaction. Vodafone Group interim CEO Margherita Della Valle recently said that the company had already taken action to simplify the group’s structure to give local markets full autonomy and highlighted a number of initiatives to generate around half of the company’s 1 billion euros cost-savings target.
Vodafone has a current market capitalization of $30.94 billion.
In Europe, Liberty Global owns Swiss operator Sunrise. In the U.K, the company owns local telco Virgin Media O2 through a JV with U.K. telco O2. Liberty Global also operate a JV with Vodafone in the Netherlands under the VodafoneZiggo brand.
Liberty Global is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver.
