Xavier Niel is acquiring a stake in Vodafone Group (LSE:VOD) through an investment vehicle called Vega, financed entirely by Niel and financial institutions with no recourse to, and no leverage impact on, any Niel family group-controlled entity.
Neil is acquiring the stake from Emirates Telecommunications (e&), acquiring around 16.2% of the company, in a cash deal valued at £4.4 billion (€5.1 billion).
The investment has been made with the agreement of Vodafone's board, and Niel has confirmed he does not intend to make an offer for the company.
Vega will draw on the Niel family group's substantial telecoms footprint to support the investment: the group operates across 26 countries in Europe and Latin America, with 139 million subscribers, 45,000 employees, annual revenues of approximately €24 billion and EBITDAaL of more than €9 billion, through assets including iliad, Salt, Monaco Telecom, Eir, Tele2 and Millicom.
Niel is also an active technology investor, having deployed approximately €4 billion into European artificial intelligence projects since 2022.
