£4.3B deal gives telco full control of Britain's largest mobile operator
Vodafone has paid £4.3 billion ($5.78 billion) for the remaining 49 percent of VodafoneThree, taking full ownership of the UK's largest mobile operator.The telecoms giant announced that it planned to buy the stake held by Three's former parent, CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings, in May.The acquisition comes just over a year after Vodafone UK and Three UK completed their merger following conditional approval from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The merger reduced the UK market to three mobile network operators: VodafoneThree, BT/EE, and Virgin Media O2 (VMO2).
Vodafone claims full ownership will help it move faster and capture the "significant benefits" of an £11 billion ($14.7 billion) network investment plan and its "targeted synergies." These include £700 million ($942 million) in annual cost and capital expenditure savings expected by the 2030 financial year.The £11 billion investment plan was a condition of the CMA's approval. The watchdog had expressed doubts that the companies would honor their pledges without binding commitments.Vodafone Group chief Margherita Della Valle said: "With full ownership and control, we'll have the ability to move faster in the next phase of building one of Europe's leading networks. This best-in-class infrastructure will deliver better connectivity for our customers up and down the country, help drive the UK's digital economy, and deliver long-term value for our shareholders."We asked Vodafone whether VodafoneThree will simply become Vodafone at some point, given that it owns the entire business now, and how long the Three brand will continue to exist (the Three website is still online at the time of writing).A spokesperson told us the company was happy with its multi-brand strategy and had no plans to change the VodafoneThree name or drop Three, VOXI, SMARTY, or Talkmobile.
