Vodafone has agreed to sell its Italian operations to Swisscom for €8bn (£6.8bn) in cash.
It follows a deal last year to sell Vodafone Spain to Zegona Communications plc.
Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, said that this was “the third and final step in the reshaping of our European operations”.
Taken together, the sale of Vodafone’s assets in Italy and Spain will deliver €12bn (£10.3bn) of upfront cash proceeds, of which €4bn (£3.4bn) is planned to be returned to shareholders through share buybacks.
Swisscom plans to merge Vodafone Italy with its Italian subsidiary Fastweb.
Vodafone will continue to provide certain services to Swisscom for up to five years for an initial annual service charge of approximately €350m (GBP299m), expected to decrease over time. A licence agreement permits the use of the Vodafone brand in Italy for up to five years post-closing.
The two companies are also exploring a closer commercial relationship beyond Italy, including IoT, enterprise services and solutions, procurement, operational shared services and roaming.
Subject to regulatory and other customary approvals, the sale is targeted for completion in the first half of 2025.
Source: https://financial-news.co.uk/swisscom-to-acquire-vodafone-italy/