LONDON: Vodafone has agreed to pay $21.8 billion to buy Liberty Global’s assets in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania to take on rivals with a broader offer of superfast cable TV, broadband and mobile.
The world’s second-largest mobile operator had held repeated talks with John Malone’s Liberty in recent years in a bid to broaden its offering and better compete in Europe with former monopolies such as Deutsche Telekom.
Vodafone will get access to 54 million homes on its cable and fiber network and enable it to cross sell a range of services to those customers, while also taking out costs.
The deal, one of the biggest in Vodafone’s history, follows a similar move in Spain where Vodafone bought cable operator Ono and is designed to help the group meet customer demand for a single package of fast communications services.
“Vodafone will become Europe’s leading next generation network owner, serving the largest number of mobile customers and households across the EU,” Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said.
Vodafone said combining the companies’ operations would generate cost savings of about €535 million a year before integration costs by the fifth year after the deal completes.
The two companies, which already have a joint venture in the Netherlands which is excluded from the deal, restarted talks in February about Vodafone buying Liberty’s assets in the other continental European countries where they overlap.
Liberty will continue to own the Virgin Media network in Britain.
The deal is likely to face a lengthy regulatory approval process, with rivals such as Deutsche arguing that it will give Vodafone too much control of the market. Both sides are targeting a completion by around the middle of 2019.
A break fee of €250 million will be payable to the British company, in certain circumstances, if the deal does not complete.
Vodafone to pay $21.8 billion for Liberty assets to strengthen European presence
Vodafone to pay $21.8 billion for Liberty assets to strengthen European presence
Gold rises on Iran war safe-haven bid; firm dollar limits upside
BENGALURU: Gold prices rose on March 5, lifted by safe-haven demand amid an escalating war in the Middle East, while a stronger dollar and concerns around the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy capped gains.
Spot gold was up 0.6 percent at $5,168.43 per ounce, as of 11:55 am Saudi time. US gold futures for April delivery were up 0.9 percent at $5,179.20.
Israel launched a large wave of strikes on Tehran on March 5, targeting what it said was infrastructure belonging to the Iranian authorities, after Iranian missiles sent millions of Israelis rushing into bomb shelters.
“On the one hand, there may be greater safe-haven demand for gold given the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. On the other hand, the risk of a prolonged period of higher energy prices that takes rate cuts off the table, and adds to the chance of rate hikes, could be capping further gains,” said Hamad Hussain, a climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics.
The US dollar rose about 0.3 percent after briefly retreating from three-month highs, as the fallout from the war roiled global markets and kept sentiment fragile.
Concerns about energy supply continued to drive up oil prices and stoke inflation fears.
Gold is considered a hedge against inflation in the long run, but also tends to thrive when interest rates are lower, as it is a non-yielding asset.
President Donald Trump, on March 4, officially nominated former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh to be the US central bank’s next chair.
US economic activity grew slightly, prices continued to increase and employment levels were stable in recent weeks, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday in its latest “Beige Book” report.
Markets expect the Fed to keep rates steady at its next policy meeting on March 18, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Investors are looking out for the weekly US jobless claims data, due later today, and the US employment report for February on March 6 for further clues on monetary policy this year.
Spot silver rose 0.5 percent to $83.80 per ounce. Platinum gained 1.1 percent to $2,172.20, while palladium lost 0.7 percent to $1,662.07.
