(AFP / ARND WIEGMANN)
The British telephone group Vodafone announced Thursday that it had finalized the sale of its Italian subsidiary to Swisscom, announced in March for 8 billion euros, part of which will allow it to reduce its debt and another part will be redistributed to shareholders.
Vodafone has “finalized the sale of its Italian operations to Swisscom”, the historic telecoms operator in Switzerland, but “will continue to provide certain services to Vodafone Italy for a period of up to five years”, he said. specified in a press release.
“The proceeds from this sale will be used to reduce the Vodafone Group's net debt and the board will aim to return up to €2.0 billion to shareholders,” added the Briton.
Vodafone had rejected advances from the French company Iliad several times before accepting Swisscom's offer in March. The operation allows the Swiss operator to strengthen its position in Italy where it has been present since 2007 with Fastweb.
For Vodafone, in the midst of restructuring after several years of poor performance, this operation marks the third stage of an overhaul of its activities in Europe, after the sale of its branch in Spain for 5 billion euros and the merger in the United Kingdom. with Three UK, from the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchinson.
In December, the British competition authority validated this mega-merger worth 16.5 billion pounds (nearly 20 billion euros), which reduces the number of telecom operators in the United Kingdom to three, against the promise significant investments in 5G.
The group returned to profit in the first half of 2024, with a net gain of 1.06 billion euros, compared to a loss of 346 million a year earlier.
The price of Vodafone increased slightly (+0.29% to 68.50 pence) on Thursday on the London Stock Exchange, shortly before 09:00 GMT.
