Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone Group") and Caudwell Holdings Limited ("Caudwell Holdings") jointly announce that they have reached agreement for Vodafone UK Limited ("Vodafone UK"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Vodafone Group, to acquire the entire share capital of Singlepoint (4U) Limited ("Singlepoint"), a wholly owned subsidiary within the Caudwell Group for a total cash consideration of £405m which will be paid from Vodafone Group's existing resources.
Singlepoint, founded in 1993 by John and Brian Caudwell, is the largest and consistently fastest growing independent service provider in the UK. It employs more than 1,900 staff and currently manages 1.9 million contract customers, of which 1.5 million are Vodafone customers, representing 27% of Vodafone's contract customer base in the UK.
The transaction is subject to EU merger clearance, such approval being expected during September this year.
Gavin Darby, CEO of Vodafone UK, commented:
"We are delighted to reach this agreement with the Caudwell Group. We have had a strong commercial relationship with John Caudwell for many years. Together with the proposed acquisition of Project Telecom, this transaction will increase the direct access to our contract customer base in the UK to 90%. This will give us greater flexibility to develop customer usage of both voice and data services and to offer a consistency of service and products to an even larger section of our customer base."
John Caudwell, Chief Executive of Caudwell, commented:
"The acquisition of Singlepoint by Vodafone UK will prove to be an extremely positive move for the company, its customers and employees. The growth, development and establishment of Singlepoint as a mainstay of airtime service provision in an extremely challenging market is something of which I am very proud. But Singlepoint's management and staff can also congratulate themselves on the creation of a business which now sets standards on both commercial and customer service fronts."
For further information:
Vodafone Group
Tim Brown, Group Corporate Affairs Director
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 673310
Investor Relations
Melissa Stimpson
Darren Jones
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 673310
Media Relations
Bobby Leach
Ben Padovan
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 673310
Tavistock Communications
Lulu Bridges
Justin Griffiths
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7600 2288
Caudwell
Iain Macauley
Tel: +44 (0) 7788 978800