{"id":30158,"date":"2026-05-06T15:57:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/30158\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:57:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:57:37","slug":"vodafone-uk-deal-seen-as-value-accretive-but-citi-expects-buyback-pause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/30158\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodafone UK deal seen as value-accretive but Citi expects buyback pause"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c44e62efa9f2118e151efde152843a18.jpeg\" alt=\"Vodafone UK deal seen as value-accretive but Citi expects buyback pause\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"639\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-lglytj  loaded\"\/> Vodafone UK deal seen as value-accretive but Citi expects buyback pause Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock      <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/VOD.l\" data-ylk=\"slk:Vodafone Group PLC&#039;s (LSE:VOD);elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Vodafone Group PLC&#039;&quot;}\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vodafone Group PLC&#8217;s (LSE:VOD)<\/a> move to take full control of its UK joint venture has been broadly welcomed by analysts, with questions remaining over how it will affect capital returns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The FTSE 100 telecoms group yesterday said it had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk\/companies\/news\/1091697\/vodafone-to-take-full-control-of-uk-mobile-joint-venture-with-three-1091697.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:agreed to buy CK Hutchison\u2019s 49% stake in VodafoneThree for \u00a34.3 billion;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;agreed to buy CK Hutchison\u2019s 49% stake in VodafoneThree for \u00a34.3 billion&quot;}\" class=\"link \">agreed to buy CK Hutchison\u2019s 49% stake in VodafoneThree for \u00a34.3 billion<\/a>, valuing the business at \u00a313.85 billion including debt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Analysts said the price looks attractive relative to earlier expectations embedded in the merger structure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Deutsche Bank said the deal accelerates Vodafone\u2019s strategy, bringing forward full ownership of the UK business \u201csooner than expected\u201d and giving it full exposure to cost savings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Analyst Robert Grindle highlighted more than \u00a3700 million of annual synergies expected by the end of the decade, with integration already progressing ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Citi said the valuation &#8220;will be seen as positive&#8221; for the UK group, noting it comes below the \u00a316.5 billion level implied in earlier put and call options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">However, Citi also flagged a likely trade-off, believing that the announcement &#8220;suggests that Vodafone will not continue its buyback into 2026\/27&#8221;, where it has been forecasting around \u20ac1 billion of shares would have been bought back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vodafone UK deal seen as value-accretive but Citi expects buyback pause Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock Vodafone&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13099,12581,5,6,12644,12580],"class_list":{"0":"post-30158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-citi","9":"tag-full-control","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-vodafone-group-plc","13":"tag-vodafone-uk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116528456873530330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}