Sale of Vodafone's 24.4% Stake in Polkomtel

Sale of Vodafone's 24.4% Stake in Polkomtel

Vodafone has agreed to sell its entire 24.4% interest in Polkomtel - telecommunications operator in Poland - to Spartan Capital Holdings SP. z o.o, an investment vehicle controlled by Polish businessman Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, for a cash consideration of approximately €920 million (£815 million/ PLN 3.7bn 2) before tax and transaction costs.

The disposal underpins Vodafone’s strategy to realise value from its non-controlled assets. Net proceeds from the sale of Vodafone’s stake will be used to reduce its net debt.

This transaction is part of an agreement between all of the shareholders of Polkomtel to sell their stakes to Spartan Capital Holdings SP. z o.o. The total consideration implies an enterprise value of €4.5bn (£4.0bn / PLN 18.1bn 2) and represents a multiple of 6.4x EBITDA for the year ended 31 December 2010. The transaction is subject to Polish competition authority approval and is expected to complete in the fourth calendar quarter of 2011.

Vodafone offers Small and Medium Businesses a complete cloud-based communications and IT solution with Microsoft Office 365

Vodafone offers Small and Medium Businesses a complete cloud-based communications and IT solution with Microsoft Office 365

Vodafone is to offer business customers a complete communications and IT solution with Microsoft Office 365 alongside its hosted telephony service, Vodafone One Net.

Vodafone One Net, which has over 1.4 million users across Europe, gives SMEs a simple, cost-effective, one bill solution for all fixed and mobile users. Intelligent call routing means that no matter what number a customer dials it can be answered on desk phones or mobile.

Tom Craig, Vodafone Business Services Director: “Small and medium sized businesses are the backbone of the European economy and it is imperative that we provide them with the tools to compete with big business in a challenging marketplace where customers expect fast responses 24/7. The combination of our fixed and mobile communications service with Office 365 helps deliver the benefits of agility, productivity and flexibility. This allows firms to respond extremely quickly to queries and puts them on a level playing field with larger companies.”

Marco Limena, VP, Business Services, Operator Channels at Microsoft: “Office 365 is our next generation cloud productivity service, combining the best productivity solutions in the market. Vodafone is an experienced partner in offering integrated communications and IT services to businesses, helping firms to do more with less. By extending their portfolio to include Office 365, Vodafone is set to give businesses a further boost in today’s challenging economic climate.”

Recent research from Vodafone highlighted that Small Businesses across Europe were missing out on new business opportunities because they were unable to respond to customer enquiries fast enough in a world where customers increasingly expect around the clock service.