Vodafone shares surged almost 11% on Friday after the French telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel bought a 16% stake worth £4.4bn, becoming the FTSE 100 group’s largest shareholder.
Niel, who founded the telecoms company Iliad and is estimated by Forbes to be worth $15.5bn (£11.5bn), acquired the stake through his family investment vehicle Vega. The purchase came after the Emirati telecoms group e& sold its entire shareholding for 112.5p a share — a 15% premium to Vodafone’s share price on Thursday. e& first took a stake worth £3.3bn in Vodafone in 2022 and had one seat on the board, with the right to nominate a second if its holding exceeded 20%.
“Xavier Niel buys 16% Vodafone stake for £4.4bn, becoming top shareholder; shares jump 11%.”
Niel, whose partner of more than 15 years is Delphine Arnault, the daughter of France’s richest man Bernard Arnault and an heiress to the luxury conglomerate LVMH, said Vodafone is now a “compelling investment opportunity”. Vega has been set up solely to house his stake, and he intends to be a long-term minority shareholder.
“As a simpler, more focused business, Vodafone is ready for a new phase of growth and is well placed to unlock substantial untapped value across its European and African operations,” Niel said. “We are confident Vodafone can deliver sustainable growth and strong cashflow generation over the long term and – as an anchor investor based in Europe – we are ready to contribute our deep sector expertise and operational knowhow to its future success.”
In recent years, Vodafone has restructured its business — including selling its Italian and Spanish operations and its 50% stake in its Dutch joint venture — as well as merging with Three to create the UK’s largest mobile operator. In May, Vodafone said it would acquire CK Hutchison’s 49% stake in their VodafoneThree joint venture to take full control.
Unlike e&, Niel does not currently have board representation. But Carl Murdock-Smith, a telecoms analyst at Citi, noted that Niel has a record of being an active shareholder. Months after taking a 19.8% stake for $1.3bn in Tele2 in 2024, which made him the Swedish telecoms company’s biggest shareholder, it announced it was cutting 15% of the workforce.
Murdock-Smith said Niel could push for similar changes at Vodafone, including job cuts, raising the question of what the billionaire’s next move will be.