2 JANUARY 2025
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Sale of
Vodafone Italy for €8 billion completes
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Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone")
announces it has completed the sale of its Italian operations
("Vodafone Italy") to Swisscom AG ("Swisscom") for €8.0 billion in
cash.1,2
The transaction values Vodafone
Italy at a multiple of 7.6x consensus Adjusted
EBITDAaL3 and c.26x
OpFCF3 for FY24, representing a
premium to the Group's trading multiple and the highest
OpFCF3 multiple of any Vodafone
market transaction in the last 10 years.
As part of the transaction, Vodafone
and Swisscom have entered into an agreement whereby Vodafone will
continue to provide certain services to Vodafone Italy for a period
of up to five years post deal completion.4
Proceeds from this sale will be used
to reduce Vodafone Group net debt and the Board will target to
return to shareholders up to €2.0 billion, as already expressed in
the announcement of the transaction dated 15 March 2024, once the
current buyback programme has completed.
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Notes
There have been no material changes
affecting any matter contained in previous announcements relating
to this transaction made on 15 March 2024, 30 September 2024 and 9
December 2024.
1. The selling entity is Vodafone Europe B.V, which is a 100%
owned subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc and the purchasing entity is
Fastweb S.p.A. which is a 100% owned subsidiary of Swisscom
AG.
2. Subject to closing accounts adjustments.
3. For the 12-month period ending 31 March 2024. Based on company
compiled consensus as at February 2024, after adjusting for c.€176
million of group services charges which are not included in
Adjusted EBITDAaL for the purposes of Vodafone segmental reporting
and €97 million of non-cash accounting gains related to the sale of
Vodafone Italy's towers to Inwit that are included in Adjusted
EBITDAaL. OpFCF is defined as Adjusted EBITDAaL less capital
expenditure.
4. The annual charge for the first year post completion is
estimated at approximately €350 million.
About Vodafone
Vodafone is a leading European and
African telecoms company. We provide mobile and fixed services to
over 330 million customers in 15 countries, partner with mobile
networks in 47 more and have one of the world's largest IoT
platforms. In Africa, our financial technology businesses serve
almost 83 million customers across seven countries - managing more
transactions than any other provider.
Our purpose is to connect for a
better future by using technology to improve lives, businesses and
help progress inclusive sustainable societies. We are committed to
reducing our environmental impact to reach net zero emissions by
2040.
For more information, please
visit www.vodafone.com follow us on X at @VodafoneGroup or connect with us on
LinkedIn at
www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone.