Vodafone rejects multibillion-euro tie-up with Iliad in Italy
The UK listed group said that talks with France’s Iliad had ended.
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Your support makes all the difference.Vodafone has rejected attempts by France’s Iliad to merge the two companies’ Italian businesses to create the country’s biggest mobile phone business.
Iliad said that its multibillion-euro proposal which was made public in December had not been accepted by the Vodafone board, despite being “the best possible business combination”.
In a statement which preceded a fall in Vodafone’s shares, Iliad said that it would continue to strengthen its Italian business and try to win market share from its rivals.
“Following Iliad’s offer dated December 18 2023, the Iliad Group submitted a further, revised proposal to Vodafone Group for the merger of Iliad Italia and Vodafone Italia in a new entity in order to create the most innovative telecom challenger for Italy,” the French business said.
“Vodafone Group has failed to accept this offer.
“The Iliad Group is confident that the offer presented was the best possible business combination to benefit a struggling Italian market and telecommunications industry.”
Shares in London-listed Vodafone were trading down around 3% at around midday.
Vodafone said: “We said in December that we are exploring options with several parties in Italy. We are no longer in talks with Iliad, but our discussions with others continue.”
Iliad’s proposal would have handed Vodafone 6.6 billion euro (£5.6 billion) had it been accepted, and the merger would have created the biggest mobile operator in Italy.
The Italian business would have been half-and-half owned by the two businesses.