Vodafone in Talks to Buy European Assets From Liberty Global -- Update
February 02 2018 - 12:38PM
Dow Jones News
By Stu Woo and Ben Dummett
LONDON -- British wireless giant Vodafone Group PLC on Friday
said it is in talks to acquire European assets from Liberty Global
PLC, John Malone's international cable company.
Vodafone, the world's second-largest mobile carrier by
subscribers, said it is in early-stage discussions and that there
was no certainty a deal would occur.
A Liberty Global spokesman declined to comment. Vodafone's stock
rose nearly 3% while Liberty Global's stock rose about 6% in the
late afternoon in Britain.
Vodafone said the talks centered on assets in continental
Europe, where the two companies have overlapping businesses. Both
companies operate in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and
Romania. Liberty has already taken recent steps to prune some of
its assets in continental Europe. In December, it announced a
EUR1.9 billion ($2.36 billion) deal to sell its cable operations in
Austria to Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG.
In addition, the two sides in 2016 merged their Dutch operations
in a 50-50 joint venture. Since then, the chief executives of both
companies, Vodafone's Vittorio Colao and Liberty Global's Mike
Fries, have repeatedly praised their relationship.
"I would agree with Vittorio: It's been a good relationship,"
Mr. Fries said at a Morgan Stanley conference in November.
London-based Vodafone spreads its operations throughout more
than 20 countries, including in Europe, Africa and Asia. It has
increasingly invested in buying and laying down its own cables to
offer television and internet services.
Liberty Global, registered in London but run out of Mr. Malone's
hometown outside Denver, is the world's biggest international cable
company, concentrating its operations across 30 countries in Europe
and Latin America. It has increasingly invested in offering its own
wireless service.
Vodafone on Friday said it isn't considering a full merger with
Liberty Global, a classic Malone company with a lean management
structure and a strategy to grow via debt-fueled acquisitions.
Asset swaps would be easier; Mr. Colao recently said Vodafone's
cable network barely overlaps with Liberty Global's in Germany, for
instance.
Write to Stu Woo at Stu.Woo@wsj.com and Ben Dummett at
ben.dummett@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 02, 2018 12:23 ET (17:23 GMT)
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