Vodafone has been minimizing its ownership of Vantage Towers for the past several years
Vodafone Group has sold a further 10% stake in Vantage Towers for 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion), a decision the company said is “in line” with its operating targets. Proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce its net debt/adjusted EBITDAaL by 0.1x, it stated.
The 10% stake went to Oak Holdings, the entity that co-controls Vantage Towers, bringing its total stake to 89.3% of Vantage Towers. Vodafone’s current ownership is 44.7%.
Infrastructure provider Vantage has a portfolio of 84,600 ground-based and roof-top macro tower sites across ten European countries. The company also offers small cell and distributed antenna systems for indoor coverage and capacity.
Vodafone has been minimizing its ownership of Vantage Towers, and in November 2022, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and KKR core infrastructure funds obtained co-control of the assets. The total proceeds from both deals — the one is 2022 and the most recent one — have amounted to 6.6 billion euros ($7.2 billion), according to Vodafone.
In other — but related — news, Vodafone Group last month sold 484.7 million shares in Indian tower company Indus Towers, raising a total of INR153 billion ($1.83 billion) in gross proceeds, which it said will be used to substantially repay Vodafone’s existing lenders. Vodafone now holds 82.5 million shares in Indus, equivalent to a 3.1% shareholding, the company said.
