Zegona Communications Plc has agreed to buy Vodafone Group Plc’s Spanish business for €5 billion ($5.3 billion) including debt.
To finance the deal, Zegona has raised debt financing of €4.2 billion and a committed revolving credit facility of €500 million, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Vodafone will provide as much as €900 million financing through an investment vehicle which will buy new shares of Zegona.
Newbury, England-based Vodafone has been trying to do a deal in Spain for more than a year. Its previous Chief Executive Officer Nick Read said the market needed consolidation, but ended up on the sidelines as its rivals agreed to merge. Following years of eroding earnings, Read’s replacement, Margherita Della Valle, demoted the unit to Vodafone’s so-called “cluster” of smaller European businesses and placed it under strategic review.
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Vodafone, which is the third-largest operator in Spain, will give Zegona the rights to use its brand for 10 years, the company said in the statement.
