Vodafone ditches Greek deal

Vodafone Group (VOD) has halted plans to tie up its Greek business with rival company Wind Hellas amid regulatory concerns.

The telecoms giant said its discussions with Largo Limited - the sole shareholder of Wind Hellas – had been terminated after regulators grew uneasy about a duopoly in a European mobile market.

The pair announced merger talks last September in a bid to shake up competition in Greece amid the economic turmoil there and the deal was believed to still be on the table as recently as last week.

The pair would have be up against the state-backed market leader, Cosmote, which is around double the size of the two companies together.

The telecoms market is under pressure from weak economic conditions and dwindling revenues and this has pushed many companies into merger talks.

In Austria, the third and fourth-largest players  - Hutchison Whampoa and Orange Austria - joined forces last week.

This followed the creation of Everything Everywhere in the UK, formed through the merger of France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom.

However, some deals are being blocked by regulators amid fears that the number of operators is shrinking.

Vodafone India

Vodafone also announced that Piramal has agreed to purchase approximately 5.5% of the issued equity share capital of Vodafone India from the Essar Group (ESSR) for around INR 30.07 billion (£385 million) in cash.

This takes Piramal's total shareholding in VIL to approximately 11%.

The transaction follows the settlement between Vodafone and Essar over the sale of Essar's 33% stake in VIL, announced in July 2011, and the purchase by Piramal of approximately 5.5% of the issued share capital of VIL from Essar in August 2011. This completes the exit of the Essar group as a shareholder in VIL.

 
For more on the sector, read: Euro woe is turning me to telecoms.