Vodafone may sell stake in Verizon

Reports in the Financial Times have indicated that mobile operator Vodafone could sell off up to half of its 45 per cent stake in US company Verizon Wireless.

According to the reports, Vodafone could exercise put options due to expire either in July or July next year. However, the FT says that Vodafone has denied that it has any such plans.

The company received the stake in Verizon following completion of its merger with the mobile operations of US based Bell Atlantic and GTE.

Vodafone has dominated the headlines in the past month for other reasons.

Last month, investors were surprised when CEO Christopher Gent announced that he was to step down in July next year.

He is to be replaced by Arun Sarin, who is currently a non-executive director of the company.

Sarin also currently heads San Francisco-based Accel-KKR Telecom.

The company also made the headlines when it lost the chance to acquire immediate control of Cegetel.

It had hoped to be able to buy BT's shares itself.