Vodafone PLC (LON:VOD) has raised gross proceeds roughly €400mln (£350mln) to pay off debt after selling shares in its Italian mobile towers joint venture.
The FTSE 100 telecoms group’s wholly-owned European subsidiary successfully placed 41.7mln shares of Milan-listed Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane (Inwit), equal to approximately 4.3% of Inwit's share capital, at a price of €9.60 per share.
Joint venture partner Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) sold an equal number of shares in the placing, meaning the share of Inwit owned by both companies falls from 37.5% to 33.2% each.
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Vodafone, which with TIM has agreed to a 90-day lockup period before selling any more shares, said the share placing will be completed on 27 April.
When the merger was first agreed last year and again when it was completed last month, both Vodafone and TIM said that they plan over time to jointly reduce their respective ownership levels of Inwit to a minimum of 25% but to retain joint control with equal stakes.
At the completion of the merger, Vodafone, which had net debt of £48.1bn at the end of last September, received cash proceeds of €2.1bn.
This week, Vodafone said it has accelerated a US$200mln payment to Indian joint venture Vodafone Idea that was due in September after a Supreme Court decision last year made telecoms companies liable for licence fees, penalties and interest dating back over 14 years.
Earlier this month, the UK telecoms group completed the sale of 100% of Vodafone Malta for €250mln cash.
In January, it agreed to sell its 55% stake in Vodafone Egypt for US$2.4bn.
Shares in the London-listed blue chip were down 1% to 105.84p on Thursday morning, down 28% so far this year.