Vodafone Group Plc, Newbury, Berkshire, is expanding its presence in the international cellular communications market through the acquisition for UKP368,421 of a 18.9% stake in Swedish company NordicTel Holdings AB. NordicTel Holdings is owned by a consortium of four companies, and was formed for the specific purpose of bidding for the Swedish Groupe Speciale Mobile digital cellular licence, which it now owns through its 90%-owned subsidiary, AB NordicTel. Now this is where it gets complicated. Vodafone, until yesterday’s transaction took place, owned the 10% balance of AB NordicTel, which it is now relinquishing as part of the deal. The 18.9% stake Vodafone is now taking in the Swedish holding company has become available as one of the four 25% owners dropped out of the group; Vodafone has also bought the right to buy the remaining 6.1% of the available shares in AB NordicTel, which it intends to exercise later. This has cost Vodafone a total UKP526,315. Vodafone’s Terry Barwick is excited by this opportunity to get further into Western Europe, which the group has been making noises about for some time. The other area Vodafone has been keen to crack is the Pacific Rim, a goal that was part fulfilled last year, when it took a 30% stake in Hong Kong analogue cellular operator Pacific Link Communications Ltd (CI No 1,800). In addition to the Swedish digital cellular licence, AB NordicTel owns 20% of a similar network in Denmark through an investment in Det Danske Mobiltelfonkompagni. Vodafone’s three partners in ownership of NordicTec Holdings are a Trelleborg AB subsidiary, AB Volvo and Spectra Physics AB. In addition to the investment for shares, Vodafone will make a shareholder contribution of some UKP9.2m during the current financial year, and UKP13.2m next year, to help finance building the new network in Sweden.
