Mobile phone group to delay US float
FROM CHRIS AYRES IN NEW YORK
VODAFONE, the British mobile phone company, is set to delay the $80 billlion (£55 billion) flotation of its joint venture in the US for the second time in four months, heightening speculation that it could make a cash bid to take control of the business.
A senior industry source in the US confirmed that Verizon Wireless, which Vodafone owns with Verizon Communications, was almost certain to miss its flotation deadline of the end of the first quarter.
Verizon Wireless, the biggest mobile phone company in the US with 27 million subscribers, originally said that it would float in August last year, most probably on the New York Stock Exchange. The float, expected to raise as much as $10 billion, was postponed just two months later because of stock market conditions. Now the share offering looks set to be delayed again.
Vodafone owns 45 per cent of Verizon Wireless. The rest is owned by Verizon Communications, created through the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp in 1998. Verizon Wireless was created a year later in a link-up with AirTouch, Vodafone’s US subsidiary.
Chris Gent, Vodafone chief executive, was criticised at the time of the deal for ceding control of the business. A source close to Vodafone in Britain said Mr Gent had “almost certainly” already approached Chuck Lee, chairman and co-chief executive of Verizon Communications, about taking control of Verizon Wireless. |
