Stable market conditions are driving the unwinding of European JVs

On 5 May, Vodafone announced the purchase of Hutchison’s 49% stake in VodafoneThree. The deal is the latest in a series of sales involving European telecoms operators taking full control of partly owned assets, a parallel trend to the latest wave of mobile consolidation (see more on this here). More activity is expected.

The timing of these deals is not coincidental but instead reflects the relative stability of the European telecoms market. Revenue is growing gradually for most operators and costs are under control, helped by a structural decline in capex. Strong share prices may also be giving management teams additional confidence to do deals.