(AFP/ADRIAN DENNIS)
The British telecoms group Vodafone has rejected the new offer to merge subsidiaries in Italy with its French counterpart Iliad, the group owned by billionaire Xavier Niel announced in a press release on Wednesday.
Parent company of the operator Free, Iliad had previously made a buyout offer of 11.25 billion euros for Vodafone Italia in February 2022, which had already been rejected.
The company, which takes “note of this decision”, maintains that the merger of these two companies “would provide, by far, the best solution” for the Italian telecoms market.
With 10.5 million mobile subscribers acquired since the launch of its Italian subsidiary in May 2018, Iliad intends to “continue to strengthen its positions on the Italian market and pursue its offensive strategy in terms of gaining market share on all segments,” he added.
According to the merger proposal renewed at the end of December, Vodafone “would obtain 50% of the share capital” of the new entity thus created, “as well as a cash payment of 6.6 billion euros and a shareholder loan of 2, 0 billion euros,” detailed Iliad.
For its part, Iliad would have received “400 million euros in cash as well as a shareholder loan of 2.0 billion euros,” he recalled.
The combined entity was expected to “generate a turnover of around 5.8 billion euros”, Iliad further estimated in December.
“The context of the Italian market requires the creation of an innovative challenger operator, capable of both being competitive and creating value in a competitive environment,” commented Thomas Reynaud, CEO of Iliad, citing “the profiles and complementary expertise of Iliad and Vodafone in Italy”.
In mid-November, Iliad announced “record” commercial performances in France and Italy, with consolidated turnover for the third quarter up 9.5% year-on-year, to 2.35 billion euros.
In March, the French group affirmed its ambition to become “one of the three major European telecom operators”.
For its part, Vodafone did not react on Wednesday morning. The group announced in March that it was seeking to cut 1,000 jobs in Italy, in order to reduce costs and face strong competition in the peninsula’s telecommunications sector.