Vodafone rules out Virgin deal after Liberty tie-up

Vodafone will pay €1bn (£780m) to Liberty

The mobile phone number was issued by Vodafone (CARL COURT/AFP/GettyImages)

Vodafone yesterday ruled out hitching up with Virgin Media even after it sealed a massive joint venture with Virgin’s owner Liberty Global in the Netherlands.

“There is nothing else going on with Liberty,” said Vodafone’s chief executive Vittorio Colao. “This is not a blueprint for other deals and our strategy is evolving market by market. In the UK, that means reselling fixed lines for broadband which we get from BT.”

Vodafone will pay €1bn (£780m) to Liberty to even out the stakes in a venture that will use the cable network of Liberty’s Dutch subsidiary Ziggo alongside Vodafone’s mobile network to offer consumers phone, broadband and TV.

Mr Colao said putting the two companies together should achieve savings of around €3.5bn.

The deal gives the two companies a much stronger presence in Holland against the original incumbent telecoms operator, KPN. The Dutch joint venture would have had 2015 sales of €4.41bn and operating profit of around €1.9bn, the companies said.