LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Vodafone said it sold a further 10% stake in Vantage Towers for 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion), bringing its ownership in a group which controls European mobile phone masts down to its intended level with infrastructure investors.
The stake sale is the final part of a deal announced in 2022 when Vodafone said it would sell a chunk of its Germany-based masts company to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and KKR to raise proceeds to reduce its debt.
Vodafone said on Monday that the 1.3 billion euros from the latest sale took total proceeds from the Vantage Towers sale to 6.6 billion euros.
Oak Holdings, the partnership that co-controls Vantage Towers, bought the 10% stake and following the deal, Vodafone said Oak Holdings owns 89.3% of Vantage Towers, with Vodafone’s effective ownership at 44.7%.
The proceeds from the latest sale would cut net debt by 0.1x, in line with Vodafone’s target of operating in the lower half of its 2.25x – 2.75x leverage range, the company said.
($1 = 0.9190 euros)
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Kate Holton)
