{"id":11865,"date":"2026-07-10T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/?p=11865"},"modified":"2026-07-11T12:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:07:15","slug":"uaes-e-to-sell-entire-vodafone-stake-to-french-tycoon-xavier-niels-vehicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/uaes-e-to-sell-entire-vodafone-stake-to-french-tycoon-xavier-niels-vehicle\/","title":{"rendered":"UAE\u2019s e&amp; to Sell Entire Vodafone Stake to French Tycoon Xavier Niel\u2019s Vehicle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Emirates Telecommunications Group (e&amp;) has agreed to sell its entire shareholding in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/villpress.com\/goto\/https:\/\/www.vodafone.com\/\">Vodafone Group<\/a> to Vega, an investment vehicle owned by the family of French billionaire Xavier Niel, in a deal valued at approximately $5.95 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The transaction, announced on July 10, 2026, covers e&amp;\u2019s roughly 16.2% stake, consisting of about 3.94 billion shares. Vega will acquire the shares at 112.5 pence each, including Vodafone\u2019s final dividend for the 2026 fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sale follows a strategic review by e&amp;, which first acquired a stake in Vodafone in 2022. Upon completion, expected by the end of 2026 subject to regulatory approvals, e&amp; will exit its investment and terminate its relationship agreement and board representation with the UK telecoms operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vodafone stated that it expects the Niel family group to be a supportive long-term investor. Niel, founder of Iliad Group (Free), has previously shown interest in Vodafone assets, including failed attempts to acquire its Italian unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The deal represents a premium for e&amp;, which built its position over several years. For Vodafone, the ownership shift ends a period of involvement from the UAE group and introduces a new major shareholder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No immediate changes to Vodafone\u2019s strategy or operations were announced. The transaction is expected to generate a net cash return for e&amp; of about AED 4.7 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vodafone shares rose following the news. The company continues to face pressures in its European markets while pursuing cost-cutting and asset optimisation measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"926\" height=\"365\" src=\"https:\/\/villpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Support-Villpress-Journalism-new.png\" alt=\"Support Villpress Journalism\" class=\"wp-image-10783\"\/><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Emirates Telecommunications Group (e&amp;) has agreed to sell its entire shareholding in Vodafone Group to Vega, an investment vehicle owned by the family of French billionaire Xavier Niel, in a deal valued at approximately $5.95 billion. The transaction, announced on July 10, 2026, covers e&amp;\u2019s roughly 16.2% stake, consisting of about 3.94 billion shares. Vega [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31579,"featured_media":11869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[632],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[452],"class_list":["post-11865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-telecoms"],"authors":[{"term_id":452,"user_id":31579,"is_guest":0,"slug":"estherspeaks","display_name":"Esthy Speaks","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cdcaf0f94087bbfcad372d974a1a697382dc93112457104ff6535cf4984ea4de?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","first_name":"Esthy","last_name":"Speaks","user_url":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/","job_title":"","description":"Ester Speaks is a senior reporter and newsroom strategist at Villpress, where she shapes Africa-focused business, technology, and policy coverage.\u00a0 She works at the intersection of journalism, and editorial systems, producing clear, high-impact news that travels globally while staying rooted in African realities."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11871,"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11865\/revisions\/11871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11865"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villpress.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}