Vodafone Group PLC (LSE:VOD) has appointed investment banking representatives at Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) to lay out the options for the British telecoms group’s Spanish assets, newspapers in the country are reporting.
Vodafone had already alluded to a “strategic review in Spain” during the group’s full-year earnings call in May as part of chief executive Margerita Della Valle’s bid to reinstate confidence among shareholders.
Spain, which comprises around 9% of global operations, was Vodafone’s worst-performing segment in 2023 financial year, with organic service revenue growth falling by 5.4%.
Italy and Germany segments also suffered negative growth, reinforcing the company’s need to streamline its global assets and potentially make cuts where possible.
Deutsche Bank telecoms analyst Robert Grindle surmised that a partial or full sale of Vodafone’s Spanish arm, including its fixed-network infrastructure, could attract private equity interest.
“Further strategic action by Vodafone to address underperforming assets following recent news of the proposed UK merger should prove sentiment supportive,” noted Grindle, referring to Vodafone’s planned merger with Three.
Proactive has reached out to Vodafone for a comment.