Xavier Niel has personally invested in the Vodafone group, through Atlas Investissement, an investment fund that he owns and controls. The owner of Iliad, which notably manages Free and Free mobile in France, thus becomes a 2.5% shareholder in the British company, an operation which should cost him around 750 million pounds (858 million euros) according to Le Figaro.
This should allow him to influence the decisions of Vodafone, which is not innocent when we remember the failure of Iliad at the beginning of the year. The French firm had offered to buy the Italian subsidiary of Vodafone and its 8.5 million subscribers, but had received a refusal from its British counterpart. Even if he does not say so explicitly, Xavier Niel is undoubtedly counting on this new investment to influence the orientations of Vodafone. What revive the idea of a purchase in Italy?
We do not yet know if this is his intention, but the Atlas Investissement press release notes that the French boss appreciates the strategy of Vodafone, which notably intends to part with its mobile infrastructure to improve its profitability. Xavier Niel also hopes to influence the group’s decisions to accelerate this strategy, reduce its costs and improve its profitability. Germany is also mentioned in the press release as one of the countries where Vodafone should accelerate the deployment of broadband.
