Vodafone
Service revenue £18.4bn, up 1%
Cynics might think that there was a fair amount of stage management behind Vodafone’s half-year results. No one should worry that talks with John Malone’s Liberty Global over a mega-merger fell apart in September because look, a partial flotation of Vodafone’s Indian business is in the offing.
A spin-off of the Indian side would, indeed, be significant for the mobile phone group. Vodafone could raise more than $3 billion if it floated a quarter of the business in what could be India’s largest initial public offering.
The manoeuvre would not be straightforward. Competition is emerging fast and Vodafone is wrangling with India’s tax authorities over a $2 billion dispute related its purchase of Hutchison Whampoa’s Indian assets in 2007.