Copying and distributing are prohibited without permission of the publisher
Vodafone to sell £3.1bn SoftBank stake
10 November 2010
Vodafone’s stake in SoftBank, which it acquired when it sold Vodafone Japan, will earn the company £3.1bn in two tranches
Read more:
Vodafone
SoftBank
Japan
China Mobile
Vodafone will sell back its stake in Japanese operator SoftBank for £3.1 billion. The company will use £1.6 billion of the sale proceeds to pay down debt, while it has not yet decided how to use proceeds of £1.5 billion from a second sale scheduled for April 2012.
The move comes as Vodafone posted a £7.54 billion net profit for the six months that ended September 30 2010. The UK-based company acquired its stakes in SoftBank in 2006, as part of its sale of Vodafone Japan to the company, receiving payment in cash and SoftBank interests redeemable at a later date. The company will redeem the investments in two instalments.
In September 2010, Vodafone also sold its 3.2% stake in China Mobile for £4.3 billion. The company will return two-thirds of the proceeds from the China Mobile sale to investors through a share buy-back programme. GTB