Vodafone might be open to sale or merger of its UK operations under a plan to rejuvenate its ailing share price, according to reports at the weekend.
The telecoms group has reportedly been in discussions with Swedish activist group Cevian Capital about how to improve its share price performance, according to the Telegraph.
A reorganisation of its Global Enterprise unit, which sells telecoms and IT services to large corporations, codenamed Project Galaxy has shifted control to local country offices, in theory making them easier to spin-off said the reports.
Organising the business on a country-by-country basis would make it easier to do deals with other groups and consolidate suggested analysts.
In the past month, Vodafone has been linked with a merger with Three UK and Italian mobile group Iliad.
Nick Read, Vodafone’s chief executive, also said last week it would make sense for markets in Europe to consolidate to enable the investment required for new tech developments.
“I look at markets where I see a strong case for consolidation without the need for punitive remedies, Those markets [are] Spain, Italy, the UK and now Portugal. Those four markets are the largest opportunity with a good and solid rationale,” he told reporters.
Read also flagged a merger of its 82% owned mobile towers arm Vantage with similar businesses run by Deutsche Telekom and Orange in France.
“Bringing that combination together would make a European champion in towers. That would underpin infrastructure for the digital decade Europe wants to achieve,”
Analysts added that the UK is only a modest part of the business currently.