Nick of time

24 February 2021 By Ed Cropley Follow @edwardcropley

The 39 bln euro phone firm’s Vantage Towers unit may be worth 14 bln euros when it lists in March. Selling a stake helps CEO Nick Read cut debt but gives him less protection from disgruntled investors. Fortunately, Vodafone’s core service business is recovering just in time.

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Vantage Towers, the mobile telephone mast company spun out of Britain’s Vodafone, said on Feb. 24 it planned to float on the Frankfurt stock exchange by the end of the March.

Vodafone said it would list a “meaningful minority stake” in Vantage, which operates 82,000 towers across Europe. Proceeds will be used to cut Vodafone’s debt.

According to its pre-listing documentation, Vantage generated adjusted EBITDA, including lease payments, of 730 million euros in the year to March 30, 2020.

Vodafone shares were down 2.3% at 127 pence by 1235 GMT on Feb. 24.

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