This article is from the source 'independent' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/vodafone-buys-spains-ono-in-72-billion-deal-9196562.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Vodafone buys Spain's Ono in €7.2 billion deal Vodafone's Ono deal sparks more acquisition speculation as mobile giant looks to diversify
(about 3 hours later)
Vodafone has agreed to buy Spain's largest cable operator Ono for €7.2 billion (£6 billion) as the British mobile phone giant aims to beef up its European operations. Vodafone has fuelled speculation that its next acquisition could be in the UK, after splashing out £6 billion on Spanish broadband and pay-TV firm Ono as the British mobile giant looks to diversify.
Ono has a current reach of 7.2 million homes - about 41 per cent of all homes in Spain - providing its customers with broadband speeds in excess of 200 Mbps and a pay-TV service through TiVo. “Vodafone is becoming a very different company to the company it was two years ago,” declared chief executive Vittorio Colao, as he hailed the acquisition of Ono, Spain’s biggest broadband and pay-TV firm.
Its network will complement Vodafone's fibre-to-the-home build programme, which will be refocused towards areas where Ono has limited or no network. Colao has been rushing to diversify as phone revenues hit a plateau and customers increasingly look to one telecoms supplier for mobile, broadband, home phone and pay-TV — dubbed a “quad play” of services.
Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao said: "The combination of Vodafone and Ono creates a leading integrated communications provider in Spain and represents an attractive value creation opportunity for Vodafone." “We are more a unified communications provider, not just a mobile one,” said Colao, reflecting on the impact of the acquisitions he has made outside the mobile sector in the last two years.
The deal builds on Vodafone's Kabel Deutschland £6.5 billion acquisition last summer as the company seeks to improve its networks and shore up its European businesses hit by fierce competition, the recession and regulatory cuts. The Ono deal follows Colao’s €7.7 billion (£6.6 billion) purchase of German cable and pay-TV firm Kabel Deutschland last year — Vodafone’s biggest acquisition since before the credit crunch — and the £1 billion takeover of British fixed-line broadband firm Cable & Wireless Worldwide in 2012.
Vodafone has launched a programme to invest in its networks, and acquire assets where necessary, after selling its stake in US mobile phone operator Verizon Wireless for $130 billion last year. Colao is also building fibre broadband networks in Portugal and Italy as part of Vodafone’s expansion into broadband and TV in those markets.
Additional reporting agencies He said that showed he was willing to invest organically as well as acquire businesses as he played down speculation about an imminent takeover move in the UK. Analysts from Espirito Santo said Vodafone could be “planning to make acquisitions elsewhere in Europe, including the UK”.
The next chapter in Vodafone’s history is “not just an M&A chapter”, insisted Colao, who has money for acquisitions, even after returning £50 billion to shareholders following its £81 billion Verizon Wireless sale.
He ruled out a bid for ITV, which has been mooted by analysts and also confirmed Vodafone was “not in the bidding process” for Channel 5.
Analysts suggest Colao could be more likely to buy telecoms provider TalkTalk or strike a deeper partnership with BSkyB, which already has a deal to let Vodafone customers access Sky Sports’ mobile clips.
Vodafone only offers mobile in Britain, plus fixed-line broadband for enterprise customers, and sells no home phone or TV services.
Colao said Vodafone has no need to start offering a quad play, even though he is doing so in Germany, Spain and Portugal. “For the time being, the UK is not a quad play market. Every market is different.”
Vodafone gains 1.9 million customers from Ono and reckons it can sell more services as the Spanish firm’s network already “passes by” seven million homes. The British firm is paying a multiple of 7.5 times last year’s profits for Ono. Morgan Stanley and boutique firm Robertson Robey, set up ex-Goldman banker Simon Robertson and former Morgan Stanley banker Simon Robey, advised.