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Mergers and Acquistions News

Categories: Telecoms

November 9th 2010, 17:29PM

Mobile giant Vodafone has said it will sell interests in SoftBank back to the Japanese mobile firm for $5 billion (£3.1 billion).

The firm acquired the interests when SoftBank purchased Vodafone Japan in March 2006 for £8.9 billion.

Payment for the mix of loan notes, preferred stock and share acquisition rights will be orchestrated via two payment tranches – an instalment of £1.6 billion in December 2010 and £1.5 billion in April 2012.

The first payment, the firm said, will go into reducing Vodafone's net debt.

Letting go of the SoftBank interests is also part of Vodafone's strategy of cutting away at non-controlled assets, generating free cashflow and liquidity.

In September, Vodafone sold its 3.2 per cent stake in China Mobile for £4.3 billion, directing £2.8 billion of that to a shareholder buy-back programme.

"We will actively manage our investment portfolio and seek out value enhancing opportunities – wherever possible – as we have done with the sale of the group's investment in China Mobile and in SoftBank which was announced today," chief executive Vittorio Colao said in a statement.

"We will seek to generate free cashflow or liquidity from non-controlled assets and investments," he added.
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