有利的

2022年11月10日,

很複雜:行人走過沃達豐商店在倫敦。的原因之一,沃達豐(Vodafone)是一個不被青睞的股票投資者,所以很難得到他們的頭圓的各種合作夥伴和龐大的業務。一如既往地,英國電信公司正試圖與部分的蛋糕和吃其移動電話基站業務出售給私人股本公司牽頭的財團全球基礎設施合作夥伴(GIP)和KKR & Co。)結果呢?當股東渴望簡化的複雜交易中。沃達豐卸載單元的一部分,有利塔AG)在2021年3月首次公開發行(ipo)。但它想賣出更多的削減債務並從多數所有權共享控製。周三公布的解決方案是將目前82%的控股合資公司,這將反過來收購上市股票。與此同時,沃達豐將出售股份的合資GIP-KKR組。財團,其中還包括沙特阿拉伯的主權財富基金,最終將公司的32%和50%之間,這取決於有多少少數股東出售以及自己的食欲。沃達豐(Vodafone)和少數民族獲得€每股32 (RM151)為他們的股票,這意味著股票的價值€16 bil(16美元基本脈衝電平或RM75.3bil)有利。 The board seats will be divided equally between the consortium and the UK company. The valuation – 26 times trailing earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation – is just below that achieved by Deutsche Telekom AG in its July agreement to sell just over half of its towers business. GIP and KKR lost out on that deal; this is their consolation prize. All of this creates some short-term uncertainties. The bid to buy out the minorities is a red rag to hedge funds to squeeze Vodafone and its new partners for a higher offer: Vantage shares are already trading above the bid price. Nor is it clear quite what the precise ownership split will be between Vodafone and the consortium. Hence, Vodafone says its proceeds could be anything between €3.2bil (RM15.1bil) and €7.1bil (RM33.5bil). Of course, it will all come clear in time. And Vodafone will no longer have to worry about the impact the unit has on its accounts, freeing Vantage to take on the higher leverage that infrastructure assets can support. It will be well-placed for future merger and acquisition in the telecom towers industry. Nevertheless, Vodafone shareholders may have been better served if the company had been willing to cede control of Vantage and do a cleaner deal. Selling a majority holding would have meant a bigger transaction, but still feasible – not least when debt markets were fully open last year. Cellnex Telecom SA, Vantage’s European rival, is primarily interested in purchases it can consolidate. So it’s not clear it was really a serious contender for this “co-controlled” asset, which will have reduced competition in the auction. Most European telecom operators share Vodafone’s obsession with maintaining influence over their towers. But the wisdom of fudged governance arrangements is questionable; the long duration of rolling mast-rental contracts already provides decent security of access. Telefonica SA has outperformed the sector since offloading its masts business in January 2021. Vodafone shares have been trading at levels last touched in 2020. Billionaire telecoms entrepreneur Xavier Niel, who revealed a 2.5% stake in September, applied pressure with the comment that he saw chances to accelerate “streamlining” and separating infrastructure assets, implicitly referring to Vantage. He was right to do so. For whatever reason, deals don’t seem to come easily to Vodafone. Chief executive officer Nick Read let France’s Orange SA team up with rival Masmovil Ibercom SA in Spain, missing an opportunity to participate in consolidation. And he was unable to turn interest in Vodafone’s Italian business from Niel and buyout firm Apax Partners LLP into a transaction. It may be a natural urge for a company to try to keep fingers in as many pies as possible. But one of the reasons why Vodafone is an unloved stock is that it’s so hard for investors to get their head round its various partnerships and sprawling operations. A less leveraged, simpler Vodafone shorn of non-core assets should be the goal. There’s clearly plenty more to do. — Bloomberg Chris Hughes is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. Article type: free