Vodafone looks for €2bn in shares sale of its phone masts         

Vodafone is looking to raise €2bn from an initial public offering of its European mobile-phone towers unit.

Vodafone is looking to raise €2bn from an initial public offering of its European mobile-phone towers unit, in what will be one of Europe's biggest stock market listings this year.

The UK telecommunication giant plans plans to sell shares in Vantage Towers on the Frankfurt exchange at between €22.50 and €29 and is targeting maximum proceeds of €2.8bn from the offering, which would include an option to increase the deal size and an over-allotment. 

The final number of shares sold will depend on where the IPO prices. Vodafone shares in London climbed 2%. 

Vantage has gathered enough investor demand to cover the full deal size of its offering. Two investment funds, Digital Colony and RRJ, agreed to buy €500m and €450m of the shares, respectively, in the offering, which will run through March 17. 

The new shares will start trading on March 18. The IPO values Vantage at as much as €14.7bn. Vodafone will use the proceeds to pay down some of its debt pile, the company has said.

Vodafone and other European carriers, hit by increasing competition, regulations and the Covid-19 pandemic, are looking to squeeze value from their mast and fibre assets. The push to roll out fifth-generation networks is also driving demand for more tower capacity. 

• Bloomberg