MARKET REPORT: Vodafone picks up the thread by selling its Italian arm to Swisscom for £7 billion
It may have been a new year, but the biggest business news during the first session of 2025 came from the closing of some old deals.
Vodafone said it has completed the sale of its Italian operations to Swisscom for £6.6 billion.
As part of the agreement, the British mobile telecom company will continue to provide certain services to Vodafone Italy for up to five years.
Vodafone said the proceeds will be used to reduce net debt, with the aim of returning up to £1.66 billion to shareholders once the buyback program is completed. It rose 0.9 percent, or 0.58p, to 68.88p.
Meanwhile, FTSE 250-listed John Wood announced the completion of the sale of its 51 per cent stake in Ethos Energy Group – a joint venture with Siemens Energy focused on rotating equipment – to One Equity Partners for £110 million in cash.
Investors in the oilfield and engineering services company were cheered by the news that the £33.7 million of previously scheduled loan notes had been replaced by an additional cash consideration on completion. Wood Group rose 2.6 percent, or 1.7p, to 67.3p.
Debt fight: Vodafone said it has completed the sale of its Italian operations to Swisscom for £6.6 billion, but will continue to provide certain services to Vodafone Italy for another five years
The new year started in the same volatile way as the previous one. At the close, the FTSE 100 rose 1.1 percent, or 87.07 points, to 8,260.09, while the FTSE 250 rose 0.1 percent, or 17.62 points, to 20,640.23.
As investors braced for the deluge of post-Christmas retail updates, Marks & Spencer stood out with a 3.7 per cent (or 13.8p) gain to 389.3p after speculation it had a strong festive period thanks to its high-quality food and drinks. .
But retail chain Kingfisher lost 0.5 percent, or 1.3 cents, to 247.4 cents, due to uncertainties in the DIY market.
The strength of the heavyweight commodity issues was the main support for the blue-chips.
Precious miners found support from higher gold prices, with Fresnillo up 4.5 per cent, or 28p, to 649.5p, and Endeavor Mining up 4.9 per cent, or 70p, to 1495p.
However, banking problems were an obstacle. Barclays lost 0.5 percent, or 1.25p, to 266.9p, while HSBC fell 0.2 percent, or 1.9p, to 73.2p.
Among small caps, Roquefort Therapeutics gained 3.7 percent, or 0.15 cents, to 4.2 cents, after it unveiled plans to sell its Lyramid subsidiary to Pleiades Pharma for at least £8 million.
Mission Group rose 12.5 percent, or 3 cents, to 27 cents as the digital marketing and communications company closed the sale of its subsidiary to Marketbridge on April 6 for a total of £17.4 million, with the net proceeds went to repaying debts.
And Victoria added 7.3 percent, or 5 cents, to 73.6 cents, after a flurry of share purchases by executives including Gavin Petken, a non-executive director of the royal carpet supplier.
Before Christmas, Saqib Karim, managing director of a subsidiary in Victoria, increased his stake to more than 5 percent.
Meanwhile, Emmerson gained 19.7 percent, or 0.12 cents, to 0.73 cents, after the Morocco-focused potash development company signed a deal with a specialist litigation finance firm to secure £8.8 million in funding with the means to resolve the dispute with the Government of Morocco.
Contango Holdings took 12 percent, or 0.15 pence, from 1.4 pence, after the Zimbabwe coal producer received a £160,000 royalty payment.
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