Vodafone Group PLC agreed to acquire Cable & Wireless Worldwide PLC for ￡1.04 billion (US$1.7 billion) in cash, adding a UK fixed-line network to its mobile-phone system and gaining business customers.
The world’s largest wireless operator will pay ￡0.38 a share in an offer recommended by Cable & Wireless directors, the companies said in a statement yesterday.
Vodafone became the sole bidder for London-based Cable & Wireless after Tata Communications Ltd last week failed to agree on a price and decided against making an offer.
Newbury, England-based Vodafone is pursuing a European fixed-line acquisition for the first time since 2010, when it ended talks to buy Germany’s Kabel Deutschland Holding AG.
“It’s an opportunistic deal and in keeping with their need to grow the UK business,” said Nick Brown, an analyst at Espirito Santo Investment Bank in London. “For them, it’s about cost savings.”
Cable & Wireless, tracing its roots to 1866 when the first submarine cable across the Atlantic Ocean was laid, has holdings in more than 60 global cable systems. It also owns the largest UK fiber system for businesses, which Vodafone may use to relieve the strain of surging data traffic on its own mobile- phone network.
“The acquisition of Cable & Wireless Worldwide creates a leading integrated player in the enterprise segment of the UK communications market and brings attractive cost savings to our UK and international operations,” Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said in the statement.
Vodafone said Cable & Wireless investors representing 18.6 percent of the shares have already agreed to the purchase. The largest shareholder, Orbis Holdings Ltd, has not yet made a commitment.
By gaining its own fiber network, Vodafone will avoid paying fees to access those of rivals — including BT Group PLC — to whom it pays ￡200 million a year, according to Sanford C. Bernstein analysts.
Vodafone will also gain British customers, including Tesco PLC.
Gavin Darby, a former Vodafone executive who replaced John Pluthero as Cable & Wireless’s CEO in November, said on Feb. 16 that he would be prepared to consider “significant, strategic decisions” as part of plans to restructure the business.
Vodafone yesterday said it would cut headcount at the company.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS