Xavier Niel becomes biggest Vodafone shareholder with $6 billion stake
Vodafone's shares have declined 1.1% this year and closed at 97.76 pence on Thursday
 "Xavier Niel becomes biggest Vodafone shareholder with $6 billion stake")
By Paula Doenecke and Benoit Berthelot
French billionaire Xavier Niel has agreed to buy a stake in Vodafone Group Plc from Emirates Telecommunications Group Co. for about $6 billion, becoming the biggest shareholder in the British telecommunications company.
Vega, an investment vehicle controlled by his family, will acquire more than 16 per cent of Vodafone’s shares for about 112.5 apiece, including cash and a future dividend, the companies said on Friday. Financial institutions will hold the shares for Vega until the deal gets regulatory approval, and the firm expects to take direct ownership by year-end, it said.
Vodafone’s shares have declined 1.1 per cent this year and closed at 97.76 pence on Thursday.
Niel, who holds telecommunications assets around the world, first acquired a 2.5 per cent stake in Vodafone in 2022. Via his Iliad brand, Niel has more than 50 million subscribers across Europe, in France, Italy and Poland. Niel’s other holdings span Latin America, Ireland, Monaco and Switzerland.
Vodafone’s main markets are the UK and Germany. Since becoming chief executive officer of the company in 2023, Margherita Della Valle has committed resources to those markets while divesting from others to overhaul a telecommunications empire that at one point stretched from the US to Africa. Her efforts put the company at the leading edge of a push to consolidate the European telecommunications sector, where profits have lagged due to fragmented markets and intense competition.
Abu Dhabi-based e&, which is majority owned by the United Arab Emirates’s sovereign wealth fund, became Vodafone’s largest shareholder in 2022 when it bought a 9.8 per cent stake, and then gradually increased its holdings.
The stake sale terminates the relationship between the companies that dates to May 2023, and e&’s former CEO Hatem Dowidar has resigned from Vodafone’s board, the British company said in a separate statement.