Not-so-paltry towers to float: Vodafone reveals IPO plans for mega European masts biz

Vodafone will IPO its towers business next year, it told the market this morning, with the global telecommunications giant planning a public offering for early next year on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Dubbed Vantage Towers (presumably because they couldn't think of a more generic name), the firm expects to sell between 10 …

[john.w]

Frankfurt Listing

Vodafone probably selected the German exchange to list due to the quality of its financial regulator and their support for companies who are able to lose the odd Billion Euro in Asian bank accounts.

[JassMan]

Who thinks up these company names?

Separately, Vodafone also plans to merge its Greek tower business with that of local telco Wind Hellas. This combined tower infrastructure company would be called Vantage Towers Greece, with ownership split between Vodafone and Wind Hellas parent Crystal Almond 62/38 respectively.

Maybe I should put in for crowd funding for "Sapphire Sh!te" and "Diamond D!ck Cheese" and bid for a slice of the action.

[RobThBay]

To bad they think to name it Fawlty Towers.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Clacks

[Jan 0]

mega European masts

Bum, there I was hoping that they were intoroducing really tall masts to improve coverage, like they do in developing countries.

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: mega European masts

According to "The Lord of the Rings", three towers are more than enough for coverage across Europe. If they're big enough. And if you have the balls. (palantir)

By the way, the headline sounds like a joke reference that I'm not getting. I tried in Google; paltry tower, paltry gloat, paltry vantage sounds Shakespearey, but about all I get back is this story.

Did they actually go with a (Not So) "Fawlty Towers" reference first and then have to change it to pacify Vantage?

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: mega European masts

I meant I tried: paltry float.

So I had to try: paltry gloat.

Also: paltry goat.

But I am still at a loss.

[RM Myers]

Is this a fire sale?

Are the 5G masts burning a hole in Vodafone's balance sheet? I heard that 5G has been really hot recently.

Come on, stop shoving! I'm leaving - you don't need to push. Geez, some people can't take a bad joke.

[John Brown (no body)]

margins of 85 per cent.

Excuse my lack of financial acumen, but does that mean they are making 85% profit on expenditure? If so, isn't that rather a lot?

[NeilPost]

Re: margins of 85 per cent.

Seems insane to sell a business with that sort of margin. Smells of a CellCo ‘sale and lease back wheeze’ short term gain v’s long term pain/annuity costs.

[Spanners]

Why?

Why the rush to remove Huawei kit? Certainly make plans but don't actually get down to it until next spring. There is a possibility that the USA might end up with an adult in the White House and this fake security "problem" might go away when the new bod notices just what a bad idea a trade war is!

[G R Goslin]

Re: Why?

I think you'll find that there are no adults, in America, to take over from the present incumbent

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Why?

I'm secretly hoping that 5G mind-control works. Given that we apparently have a president that is being mind-controlled on dialup

[You aint sin me, roit]

Sound investment

For a certain Chinese company intent on building the world's 5g infrastructure...

Just think how far they could spread the next virus with all those towers.