Vodafone Group PLC (LSE:VOD) confirmed it has reduced its stake in Indus Towers Limited, the Indian telecom infrastructure provider.
Around 18%, or 484.7 million shares, of the New Delhi-based group, was offloaded through an accelerated book-build offering, raising gross proceeds of INR 153.0 billion (€1.7 billion).
Proceeds from this sale will be used to repay e Vodafone’s €1.8 billion outstanding bank borrowings, which are secured against its Indian assets.
Following this transaction, Vodafone retains 82.5 million shares in Indus Towers, equivalent to a 3.1% shareholding.
Last month, the telecom group completed the sale of its Spain arm to Zegona Communications (LSE:ZEG) plc for €4.10 billion in cash and €0.90 billion in redeemable preference shares.
It forms part of boss Margherita Della Valle’s strategy of streamlining Vodafone’s global operations in the face of a burdensome debt pile and lossmaking European operations.