In March, Vodafone agreed to sell its troubled Japanese unit after chief executive Arun Sarin came under huge pressure from Vodafone shareholders and boardroom members loyal to former chief executive Sir Christopher Gent.

The decision to sell the unit signaled the end of Vodafone’s global ambitions, and following a boardroom purge, Sarin looks set to adopt a much more conservative approach than Gent, who transformed Vodafone from a small UK operator into a mobile giant in the space over five years after an aggressive acquisition strategy.

The old guard at Vodafone rebelled at the idea of selling the Japanese unit, especially as it is still a profitable unit. For the six months ending September 30, 2005, Vodafone Japan posted an operating profit of 191m pounds ($334m), down from 423m pounds ($741m) in the same six-month period in 2004. Revenue meanwhile rose to 3.7bn pounds ($6.49bn) from 3.68bn pounds ($6.47bn) in 2004.

The financial markets and their fascination with ARPU figures have consistently pointed to the weakness in Vodafone’s Japanese operation, but ARPU figures have been declining in many markets over the past few years, not just in Japan.

Sarin intends to return the bulk of the money from the sale, 6bn pounds ($10.53bn), to shareholders, either by way of a special dividend, or by issuing new shares. This money will come mainly from banks. Softbank secured the syndicated loan from Deutsche Bank AG, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Citibank NA, Goldman Sachs Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, Calyon, and WestLB AG.

Reuters quoted an unnamed banking source that said that each lender would extend between JPY 100bn ($851m) and JPY 200bn ($1.7bn). The loan will initially be for one year, the sources said, with interest and commissions at about 3% of the loan amount.

Softbank will put up JPY 200bn ($1.7bn) of its own money, with its online auction unit Yahoo Japan Corp putting up another JPY 120bn ($1.02bn). Softbank will receive the funds on April 27, and Vodafone expects to complete the sale of Vodafone Japan by May 1.