Boost for Vodafone shareholders

Thousands of Irish shareholders received a boost yesterday as Vodafone shares hit their highest value in 10 years.

An announcement that the company is in talks to sell its stake in US network Verizon Wireless pushed the shares up as much as 9.6% at one point to their highest price since 2002, adding over €9.8bn to the market value of the world’s second-largest wireless company.

Thousands of Irish people who held onto their Eircom shares have a stake in Vodafone. In 2001, Eircom sold its mobile arm Eircell mobile for €4.2bn to Vodafone, and around half a million Eircom shareholders received shares in the deal.