News
The deal was first confirmed last October
This week, Zegona’s acquisition of Vodafone Spain has received approval from Spanish regulators.
The Spanish government’s Council of Ministers has approved the deal “in respect of foreign direct investment into Spain,” said UK-based Zegona in a press release this morning.
Back in October, Vodafone announced that it had entered into a binding agreement with Zegona to sell 100% of their stake in Vodafone Spain for €5 billion.
“The sale of Vodafone Spain is a key step in right-sizing our portfolio for growth and will enable us to focus our resources in markets with sustainable structures and sufficient local scale,” said Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle in a statement.
“I would like to thank our entire team in Spain for their dedication to our customers and relentless determination to improve our organic performance. However, the market has been challenging with structurally low returns,” she continued.
The acquisition is scheduled to take place on 31 May, when Vodafone will receive €4.12 billion in cash and €900 million in redeemable preference shares.
For some time, Vodafone has been struggling to boost revenues in the notoriously competitive Spanish market against market leader Movistar, as well as Orange and Masmovil.
Vodafone’s ex-CEO Nick Read had hoped that market consolidation would solve the issue for Vodafone, but these hopes were dashed when Orange and Masmovil announced their intention to merge in 2022. The European Commission approved the €18.6 billion deal in February following the conclusion of an in-depth investigation initiated in April 2023.
As a result, newly appointed Della Valle said the unit’s sale was necessary to “improve the Group’s competitiveness and growth prospects”.
Vodafone’s financial results, published this week, suggest that Della Valle’s strategic approach appears to be working, with organic service revenue growth of 6.3% and organic EBITDA-AL growth of 2.2%.
Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter
Also in the news:
Investors shorting BT for $300m in twelve-year record
4G now covers all stations on the Elizabeth Line
EXA Infrastructure continues expansion in North America with new route between Ashburn and Atlanta