Announced in May 2023 following its year-end result publication, Vodafone embarked in a “right-sizing” journey over the last 2 years, most notably in Europe where it has significantly reduced its portfolio. The group has sold operations in Spain (to Zegona in October 2023) and in Italy (to Swisscom in March 2024), shortly after selling assets in Hungary (to 4iG in January 2023). It is still rationalizing its operations on the Old Continent and is currently awaiting approval for a merger with 3 in the UK. It was also revealed in March 2025 that Vodafone could soon sell its shares in Dutch telco VodafoneZiggo to its co-owner Liberty Global and completely exit the Netherlands. Right-sizing the European portfolio will cost Vodafone its leading position At the end of 2024, Vodafone was still the largest telco in Europe in volume of RGU (revenue generating units): the group holds 130 million contracts across mobile, internet and pay TV segments in 11 markets, ahead of Orange (120 million, including the JV MasOrange), Deutsche Telekom (107 million), Telefonica (106 million, including the JV Virgin Media O2) and Iliad (79 million). The European telecom landscape has been significantly reshuffled in the last 5 years following successive asset divestments and mergers among leading actors. Vodafone has greatly reduced its scope after exiting Ukraine in 2019, Hungary in 2023 and most significantly from Italy and Spain last year which accounted for over 38 million RGUs together. Meanwhile, Orange has been tailing Vodafone after successive expansions in key markets for the group, acquiring assets from competitors in Romania in 2021, in Belgium in 2023 and creating a dominant player in Spain with the MasOrange merger in 2024. Telefonica also saw its subscription base progress in 2022 with the Virgin Media O2 merger in the UK. And Iliad, which was a secondary player a decade ago, has since then vastly expanded outside of its core domestic market to become the 5th largest telecommunications player in Europe after the acquisitions of Play and UPC in Poland (2020), Lifecell and Volia in Ukraine (2024) and Tele2 in the Nordics and Baltics (2024). If Vodafone were to exit the Dutch market, it would lose 12.1 million RGUs and become the second-largest telecom group in Europe, behind Orange when accounting for participations in joint ventures, which would represent a significant change in the regional market. In Africa where it operates under the Vodacom brand and owns participations in Safaricom (present in Kenya and Ethiopia), the group also exited several markets in recent years. Back in 2019, it sold its operations to Synergy Communications in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Zambia, and to Internet Technologies Angola in the latter. By now, Vodacom still operates in Egypt,...
