- Vodafone Italy CEO is to step down in November
- The sale of Vodafone's Italian unit to Swisscom is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025
- The now offloaded Vodafone Spain is coming to grips with its new strategy
Vodafone Italy is beginning the painful process of preparing its separation from the Vodafone mothership as it counts down the months, weeks and days until its proposed acquisition by Swisscom is completed.
Vodafone Group announced on Thursday that Aldo Bisio will step down as CEO of Vodafone Italy on November 15 to “pursue an external opportunity.”
Bisio will remain a non-executive member of Vodafone Italy’s board to oversee the regulatory approval process of the sale to Swisscom. Meanwhile, Sabrina Casalta, currently CFO at Vodafone Italy, will be appointed interim CEO until the sale is completed.
The planned departure of the CEO is the latest indication that Vodafone Group is not expecting to encounter significant opposition to its plan to sell Vodafone Italy. The €8 billion deal is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2025, or at least within the first six months.
In May, Swisscom received partial regulatory clearance for the deal, noting that the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers had “unconditionally approved the acquisition pursuant to the Golden Power legislation,” referring to the special power of the Italian government to limit or stop foreign direct investments in assets deemed strategic for Italy.
At the time, Swisscom noted that the transaction was still subject to approval by the Italian competition authority and other customary approvals including from the Swiss competition authority, Italy’s regulator AGCOM and ministry MIMIT, and the European Union’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation.
Exit from Spain
Vodafone listed its Italian and Spanish businesses as discontinued operations in its reporting for the financial year to March 31, 2024.
Indeed, the group has already formally exited the Spanish market following the completion in June of the sale of Vodafone Spain to Zegona Communications for a total fee of €5 billion, of which €4.1 billion was in cash.
Since then, Zegona has lost no time in ensuring that its newly acquired business will be provided with the necessary attributes to support its future strategy in what remains an extremely competitive market, with competition from Telefónica, the newly formed MasOrange, and an emerging fourth mobile network operator in the form of Digi Spain.
For instance, the firm has already appointed José Miguel García, a former CEO of both Jazztel and Euskaltel, as the new CEO of Vodafone Spain, replacing Mário Vaz. As the deal was completed, Vodafone and Zegona also established a new wholesale deal with existing customer Finetwork, which will resell the operator’s fixed and mobile services.
More recently, Zegona has secured long-term financing that Eamonn O’Hare, CEO of Zegona, said provides a capital structure that is “fit for purpose” and enables a focus on the “continued execution of our strategic plans to improve Vodafone Spain.”
Other measures include a refresh of converged fiber and mobile plans, with an emphasis on flexibility, while on the B2B side Vodafone Spain said it now has over 7.37 million active IoT lines as of June 30, after gaining 805,941 new IoT lines in the past six months.
On a less positive note, further job cuts are already planned at Vodafone Spain, although not as many as originally feared.
Following some unrest, Zegona struck an agreement with Spanish trade unions that will result in 898 Vodafone Spain staff being made redundant, Europa Press has reported, citing sources from UGT. Apparently, this is a 25% reduction from the 1,198 departures that were initially planned.