Some of Vodafone’s small shareholders are confused. And, frankly, it’s not hard to see why. Next week, shares in Vantage Towers, the European masts business that is fully owned by the telecoms group, will begin trading in Frankfurt.
The listing will generate proceeds for Vodafone of €2.8 billion, a fairly tidy sum. But what, some wonder, is going to happen to the money: might it be returned as a special dividend, as has happened before?
Why is the company hiving off part of a high-growth business and what will it mean for the group’s long-suffering shareholders? Will it, heaven forfend, improve the group’s lagging stock price?
Vodafone is based in Newbury, Berkshire, and, since its creation in 1982 as a subsidiary of Racal Electronics, has
