Vodafone Shares Soar 13% in London After Xavier Niel's Vega Buys e&'s Entire Stake to Become Top Shareholder

LONDON — Shares of Vodafone Group jumped as much as 13% on Friday after Emirates Telecommunications Group, known as e&, agreed to sell its entire 16.2% stake in the British telecommunications company to Vega, an investment vehicle owned by the family of French billionaire Xavier Niel.

Vodafone's American depositary shares were trading at $14.81 in New York on Friday morning, up $1.73, or 13.18%, according to Yahoo Finance data. In London, the stock touched an intraday high near 111 pence and closed the session at 110.10 pence, its strongest finish since mid-June, outperforming a broader FTSE 100 index that was little changed on the day.

The deal, valued at approximately $5.95 billion, or roughly £4.4 billion, will see Vega acquire e&'s full holding of about 3.94 billion Vodafone ordinary shares, representing 16.21% of the company's issued share capital and 17.13% of its total voting rights. The agreed price of 112.5 pence per share includes about 110.5 pence in cash plus Vodafone's final fiscal 2026 dividend of 2.02 pence per share, which e& is set to receive on July 30. That price represents a premium of roughly 13% to 15% over Thursday's closing price of 97.76 pence.

Once regulatory approvals are secured, Niel will become Vodafone's largest individual shareholder, replacing e&, which had built its stake since first investing $4.4 billion for a 9.8% position in 2022. The shares will be transferred through simultaneous off-market block trades to three financial institutions, with e&'s holding placed in trust pending clearance.

As part of the transaction, e& has terminated its relationship agreement with Vodafone, and its board representative, Hatem Dowidar, has stepped down from his role as a non-executive director with immediate effect. e& described the divestiture as representing the "natural evolution" of its strategic priorities, as it moves to concentrate on its core operations while realizing a return on its investment.

Vega, which is fully owned by the Niel family group, said it has no intention of launching a full takeover offer for Vodafone and characterized the purchase as a long-term, strategic minority holding. Under the UK Takeover Code, the company said it plans to engage with the British government regarding the transaction.

Niel is the founder of French telecommunications company Iliad and one of Europe's most prominent telecom investors. Through companies controlled by his family group, he holds telecom assets spanning 26 countries across Europe and Latin America, serving approximately 139 million subscribers and employing roughly 45,000 people. The portfolio, which includes Iliad, Salt, Monaco Telecom, Eir, Tele2 and Millicom, generates around €24 billion in annual revenue and more than €9 billion in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, after lease costs.

Niel has previously sought a foothold in Vodafone's operations directly, having made two unsuccessful attempts to acquire the company's Italian business, both of which were rejected.

Analysts said the scale of the premium Niel agreed to pay, combined with his industry track record, fueled investor optimism that Vodafone's public market valuation may have been understating the company's underlying worth. Morgan Stanley analysts said Niel's telecommunications experience and limited operational overlap with Vodafone's existing footprint could make him a stable, long-term backer, with market attention now shifting toward the performance of Vodafone's German business, where the company continues to trail market leader Deutsche Telekom.

AJ Bell analyst Dan Coatsworth said investors reacted positively to the size of Niel's commitment. "The market has responded favourably to Niel's latest move, with certain investors possibly believing he might want to buy the whole of Vodafone in time," Coatsworth said. "That might not be the case, but it won't stop market speculation."

Kester Mann, an analyst at CCS Insight, described e&'s exit as an unexpected reversal for the Abu Dhabi-based operator, which had previously positioned itself as a company expanding its global telecommunications footprint through international stakes such as its Vodafone investment.

Friday's rally pushed Vodafone shares decisively above their 200-day moving average, a threshold that traders often use to gauge whether a stock has broken out of a long-term downtrend. Technical analysts said the stock would need to hold above the 105-pence level, where the recent breakout gap and its 50-day moving average both provide support, for the bullish move to be sustained. A push above resistance near 117 to 122 pence was cited as the next test for the shares, while some technical indicators, including the Relative Strength Index, flagged the stock as overbought following the sharp one-day gain.

Vodafone, incorporated in 1984 and based in Newbury, England, provides mobile and fixed telecommunications services, cloud and edge computing, and financial technology products including its M-PESA mobile money platform in Africa, serving customers across Europe, Africa and other international markets.

The broader London market was little changed Friday. The FTSE 100 rose about 0.1% at midday, while the FTSE 250 and the AIM All-Share index posted modest gains. The British pound strengthened against both the U.S. dollar and the euro during the session. In New York, U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed open, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average called modestly higher and the Nasdaq Composite indicated lower.

Vodafone did not immediately issue additional public comment beyond confirming the terms of the transaction and the departure of e&'s board representative. The deal remains subject to customary regulatory approvals before Vega's stake formally transfers.