Iliad would be interested again acquire Vodafone or part of its business in Europe. He brings it back Bloomberg citing unnamed sources. In particular it would be right there Italian division one of the possible suspects to pass under the control of the French telco.
After the attempt made in early 2022 and failed, Xavier Niel – majority shareholder of iliad and already holder of 2.5% of Vodafone shares – would have reconnected with the management of the red operator to resume talks. The rumors of a renewed interest in Vodafone by iliad are liked by the financial market: on the London stock exchange, Vodafone shares recorded the highest growth in the last two months (+3.3%).
Mouths sewn on both sides, as it is easy to imagine, but people informed of the facts believe that the operation, although potentially feasible, will not be concluded soon: Vodafone Group is currently led by interim CEO Margherita Della Valle, and not it cannot be ruled out that the company prefers to postpone all decisions until the new CEO is appointed.
In February last year iliad made a first attempt to acquire the Italian division of Vodafone, driven by the desire to internalize the infrastructure of the red operator (with consequent savings compared to the expense to be incurred for the construction of an infrastructure from scratch) . The no from Vodafone came almost immediately: despite the refusal of the 11.25 billion euros put on the table by iliad, the British telco has never definitively closed the door to any future acquisitions. We’ll see if this will be the right time.