Vodacom’s biggest shareholder sells tower business stake for R26 billion

Vodafone Group sold another 10% stake worth €1.3 billion (R26 billion) in Vantage Towers, as the UK-based telecommunications firm seeks to reduce its debt.

The sale is part of a deal announced in November 2022, when Vodafone agreed to sell a stake in its Germany-based tower company for €32 per share to KKR & Co. and Global Infrastructure Partners.

Under the deal’s terms, Vodafone shifted its 81.7% holding in Vantage Towers into a joint venture with KKR and GIP, called Oak Holdings, and has been selling it down ever since.

The most recent sale brings Vodafone’s total proceeds from the deal to €6.6 billion (R131 billion), the company said in a statement on Monday.

The sale means Vodafone now owns 50% of Oak Holdings, as originally envisioned by the consortium, the company said.

European telecom operators are looking for ways to generate money as they struggle to make a return on their capital investments.

Many companies have sold stakes or their entire infrastructure operations to generate funds.

Vodafone’s chief executive officer Margherita Della Valle, who formally took the reins last year, has sold off underperforming markets and worked to scale back a sprawling empire that at one point stretched from the US to Africa.

Her turnaround plan has included selling off its Spanish and Italian businesses and an attempted merger with CK Hutchison’s Three, currently undergoing reviews from the UK competition authority.