Vodafone to create mobile mast company; sees potential IPO
Vodafone said it was spinning off its mobile tower infrastructure into a separate unit that could be listed.
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The company added on Friday that first quarter group revenue fell 2.3% to €10.7bn (£9.59bn) due to foreign exchange rate effects, as it remained confident of full year adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation guidance of €13.8bn - €14.2bn.
Group service revenue fell by 0.2% as the company's “gradual” recovery continued.
Vodafone said the new mobile mast company would be operational by May 2020 made up of 61,700 towers in 10 markets with 75% in its biggest markets of Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain and potential proportionate EBITDA of around €900m.
“Given the scale and quality of our infrastructure, we believe there is a substantial opportunity to unlock value for shareholders while capturing the significant industrial benefits of network sharing for the digital society,” chief executive Nick Read said in a statement.
Vodafone said it would "monetise a substantial proportion" of the new entity over the next 18 months, depending on market conditions. This could be an IPO or disposal of a minority stake in "as well as potential disposals of minority or majority stakes at an individual country level".
Proceeds from any of these would be used to cut Vodafone’s debt.