Shares in Vodafone are expected to open higher on Monday after it beat rival suitors with an $11.1 billion bid for a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar, India’s fourth-biggest mobile phone firm.The deal, confirmed late on Sunday, gives British-based Vodafone a powerful stake in the world’s second-biggest and fastest-growing mobile phone market.
It is also a high-stakes move by Vodafone Chief Executive Arun Sarin, who is under pressure from slowing growth in the firm’s core European markets, but has also been warned by investors not to overpay for acquisitions.
Traders said Vodafone shares were likely to rise by as much as 2.5 percent in early trade, signalling investors think Sarin has struck a good deal.
Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile phone firm by subscribers outside China, is a serial acquirer and its 180-billion-euro ($234 billion) purchase of Germany’s Mannesmann in 2000 was the biggest company takeover in history.
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