26th Mar 2020 09:27
(Alliance News) - Vodafone Group PLC on Thursday said the merger of Vodafone Italy's towers into INWIT is now complete, with INWIT now the largest tower operator in Italy.
Shares in telecommunications firm Vodafone were down 2.8% at 113.88 pence in London in morning trading.
Telecom Italia and Vodafone agreed to fold their Italian mobile tower assets into Telecom Italia's 60%-owned unit INWIT back in July 2019 in order for Vodafone to reduce debt and free up cash to roll out 5G telecommunications networks.
Telecom Italia and Vodafone each will have a 37.5% stake in INWIT once the merger takes effect on Tuesday next week, though over time are considering jointly reducing their ownership to 25% each.
Vodafone is to receive 360.2 million INWIT shares and EUR2.14 billion of cash proceeds on Tuesday next week which it said "which will be used to reduce net debt".
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
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