Vodafone share price: New Zealand unit offers redundancy to 2,000 staff

Vodafone’s (LON:VOD) unit in New Zealand has offered voluntary redundancy to thousands of staff members, Reuters has revealed. The move comes with the telco planning to review the business ahead of a possible stock market listing next year.

Vodafone’s share price rose in the previous session, gaining 0.87 percent to close at 136.80p, outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index shedding 0.74 percent to close at 7,104.31 points. The group’s shares have lost more than a third of their value over the past year, as compared with about a 1.4-percent drop in the Footsie.

NZ unit offers redundancy

Reuters reported this morning that Vodafone New Zealand had said that about 2,000 staff – with the exception of frontline call centre and retail team members – were asked last month if they would consider redundancy. A spokeswoman for the company told the newswire that a small proportion of employees had taken up the opportunity.

“We’re now in the process of working through those expressions of interest and will evaluate them based on ensuring customer service levels are preserved, business continuity maintained, and key skills are retained and developed to drive for our future growth,” she told Reuters in an email.

Restructuring continues

Reuters noted that Vodafone New Zealand’s newly appointed chief executive Jason Paris had said late last year that the company was being restructured to get it into shape for an initial public offering in 2020.

Last week, Vodafone said that it was aiming to raise €4 billion with convertible bonds as it looks to fund its deal with Liberty Global, which will see the FTSE 100 group acquire Liberty’s operations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

As of 07:42 GMT, Monday, 11 March, Vodafone Group plc share price is 136.80p.