Vodafone share price: Telco inks deal with Telefónica DE

Vodafone (LON:VOD) has inked a wholesale deal with Telefónica Deutschland, the London-listed telecoms group has said. The agreement, however, is subject to the completion of its acquisition of Liberty Global’s operations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

Vodafone’s share price has jumped in London in today’s session, having gained 1.60 percent to 142.30p as of 09:51 BST. The stock is outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.40 percent lower at 7,350.76 points. The group’s shares have given up just under a third of their value over the past year, as compared with about a 2.65-percent dip in the Footsie.

Wholesale deal with Telefónica DE

Vodafone announced in a statement this morning that it had entered into a definitive agreement for a cable wholesale agreement in Germany with Telefónica Deutschland. The deal will allow the German group to offer high-speed broadband services to consumers on Vodafone and Unitymedia’s cable network in Germany, and is subject to the completion of the FTSE 100 telco’s deal with Liberty Global, which is conditional on European Commission approval.

Vodafone noted that it had submitted a remedy package following discussions with the EC, and now expects Brussels to undertake market testing, and to adopt its decision on the transaction by July with completion occurring later that month.

Analysts on London-listed group

Numis Securities reaffirmed the London-listed telco as a ‘buy’ last week, with a target of 220p on the Vodafone share price, while JPMorgan Chase & Co remains ‘overweight’ on the company, without specifying a valuation on the stock. According to MarketBeat, the FTSE 100 group currently has consensus ‘buy’ rating and an average price target of 191.29p.

Vodafone is scheduled to update investors on its full-year performance on May 14.