Vodafone Group is said to be mulling mergers of its British and Italian units with CK Hutchison’s Three UK and France’s Iliad SA respectively, as per Bloomberg and Reuters sources. The sources said that Vodafone had expressed interest in Three UK late last year but the talks did not lead to an agreement. While Vodafone and CK Hutchison are not in active negotiations as per the sources, a deal between the two has been speculated for years as they have teamed up in markets such as Australia. On the deal with Iliad, sources said that the French telco is working with Lazard on the potential transaction that could create a combined business with revenues of ~€6bn ($6.8bn). New Street Research’s James Ratzer commented, “If Vodafone is able to pull these deals off then we believe it should help to further support the stock, but a lot will hinge on the outcome of any four-to-three mobile regulatory reviews.” Vodafone CEO Nick Read had in November expressed the company’s efforts to consolidate in its major European markets.
Vodafone’s 4.375% 2028s are currently trading at 110.84 yielding 2.51%.
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