Vodafone confirms €4bn Liberty fundraise from convertible bonds

(Sharecast News) - Vodafone confirmed on Tuesday that it is aiming to raise roughly €4bn from convertible securities to fund the acquisition of Liberty Global's assets in Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.The FTSE 100 telecoms giant said it would issue two tranches of sterling-denominated mandatory convertible bonds, which would enable it to buy back shares in order to mitigate dilution, as had been suggested in reports at the start of the week. "Any decision to buy back shares will be taken independently of the conversion of the bonds and will be dependent on market conditions and Vodafone's financial position and outlook at the relevant time," it said, with any such buyback to be funded by issuing hybrid securities.Vodafone said it was likely to take an option strategy that would give it the ability to partially or fully mitigate any share price appreciation of the bonds.Vodafone agreed to acquire Liberty Global's German and Eastern European operations for $22bn back in May 2018, stating at the time that it would look to sell roughly €3bn of convertible securities to help fund the transaction.