Vodafone says no to T-Mobile

July 30, 2017

Rumours that T-Mobile and Vodafone remain open after both companies refused to make public comment.

Sir John Bond, Vodafone’s chairman, told those in attendance at the company’s 25th annual meeting that he was not aware of a sales process, despite the comment by Chief Executive Vittorio Colao that consolidation in the UK would be a good move.

Currently Vodafone, which is based out of Newbury, owns about 25% of the UK mobile phone market, ranking under 02 which owns 27%.

If Vodafone were to purchase T-Mobile UK its share would increase to 41% which may place it under investigation and the eye of the competition commission.

T-Mobile UK is estimated to be worth about £3 billion.

Bond did state that consolidation in the British mobile market would be a ‘good thing,’ but he declined to accept the role of a T-Mobile purchase in the statement.

The board meeting was highly concentrated on Vodafone’s remuneration scheme with shareholders speaking out against the pay and bonus policy and executives with high pay while the share price of the company continues to fall.

Colao told shareholders that the company is expecting to continue to face the fallout of the economic recession throughout the rest of 2017 but has plans to reduce operating costs by about £1 billion by April of 2011 and has already made efforts by reducing the headcount of employees by 1,800.