Vodafone to hand £430m to shareholders in latest buyback

Telecoms giant is to return billions to shareholders over the coming years, as it presses on with a corporate turnaround plan.

Vodafone is midway through a turnaround plan (Chris Ison/PA) (PA Wire)

Vodafone has said it will hand 500 million euros (£430 million) back to shareholders over the coming months, as part of a broader plan to boost investor returns.

The telecoms giant said the latest stage of its share buyback programme will last until November 29, and that it had hired Goldman Sachs to carry it out.

It comes after Vodafone committed to return two billion euros to shareholders in March, after selling its Spanish business earlier this year.

Shares rose 1.7% on the news.

Vodafone is midway through a turnaround plan which has included selling off its Italian and Spanish businesses and cutting thousands of jobs.

It said in May that it had returned to growth in its key markets, despite overall revenue and operating profit dropping last year.

Meanwhile, it is still waiting to find out if a £15 billion planned merger with Three has the seal of approval from the UK’s competition regulator.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said last week that it had extended the period of time it needs to investigate the deal.

The plans to combine have been under scrutiny since being announced last summer, delaying what would create the UK’s largest mobile phone network.

The two mobile firms say the deal will allow them to invest more in their services and better compete with major rivals, EE operator BT and Virgin Media-O2.

In an update published on August 2, the CMA said it was giving itself until December 7 to complete the probe and publish its findings.