Vodafone chief says India listing could help with any future Liberty tie-up

LONDON : Vodafone’s planned listing of its Indian business could help the British group if it pursues any further tie-ups with cable-TV company Liberty Global in Europe, its chief executive said on Friday.

U.S. group Liberty and Vodafone have agreed to form a joint venture in the Netherlands, but analysts have said that the British company’s operations in Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific could be an obstacle to deeper collaboration.

CEO Vittorio Colao said there are no plans to spin off its emerging markets operations but acknowledged some of the fringe benefits of the Indian listing.

“We are very happy with our emerging markets portfolio. So as such we do not have a plan to separate from them,” Colao said after the group posted better than expected 7.7 percent revenue growth for its emerging markets business in the first quarter.

“Having said that, we have a set-up with the listed unit in Africa and we are planning to list in India, which will allow us to have a clear assessment of their value and higher flexibility in the future should any type of co-operation with Liberty become the case.”