Underpins SP and shows all the vultures are circling and agitating for change14 Feb 2023 07:24
A US billionaire known as the “cable cowboy” has snapped up a near-5pc stake in Vodafone as the FTSE 100 telecoms company struggles to revive its languishing share price.
John Malone's business Liberty Global, which owns UK mobile and broadband company Virgin Media O2 and the rights to Formula 1, said it had made the “opportunistic” investment after Vodafone's share price dropped to multi-year lows.
Chaired by Mr Malone, an 81-year-old telecoms entrepreneur known as the “cable cowboy”, Liberty will acquire 1.3 billion Vodafone shares for £225m.
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Mike Fries, chief executive 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.”
He added Liberty expected its investment would be “replenished with the sale of certain non-core assets over time”.
Vodafone previously took over Liberty's German broadband business in a £16bn deal. But this division has since struggled and suffered from a steady exodus of customers. The pair also jointly control the Dutch telecom company VodafoneZiggo.
Liberty said it had no plans to make a full takeover offer for Vodafone, meaning it will be barred under City rules from an approach for at least six months.
However, the stake-building will raise expectations of future dealmaking among Britain's telecoms companies as various suitors seek to consolidate their operations and gain scale.
Vodafone, which is currently valued at around £25bn, has been in talks since last year with Three about combining their mobile operations, while in 2021, Liberty secured a blockbuster £31bn merger between its Virgin Media broadband business and UK mobile network provider O2.
While Liberty ruled itself out of an imminent bid for Vodafone, Mr Fries said he expected further consolidation of the UK's telecoms market.
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