Vodafone rejects offer from French owner of Eir to merge Italian businesses

Eir-owner Iliad said Vodafone had rebuffed a revised 50:50 proposal to create an operator with a combined enterprise value of €14.7bn

Analysts at Citi said Vodafone's rejection of Iliad, founded and majority owned by French billionaire Xavier Niel, was disappointing.

Vodafone said it had rejected a sweetened offer from rival telecom operator Iliad to merge their Italian businesses and was pursuing other deals in a market where it is losing revenue and makes no return on its capital. Iliad is the French telecom operator that owns Eir in Ireland.   

Iliad said Vodafone had rebuffed a revised 50:50 proposal to create an operator with a combined enterprise value of €14.7bn.