According to reports, Vodafone rebuffed the request, which would have enabled French media giant Vivendi to reduce taxation of profits at the French mobile operator.
There was no benefit to Vodafone from what appears to be a tax exercise in France, a company insider was reported to have said.
Back in December 2002, Vivendi succeeded in gaining a controlling stake in telecoms company Cegetel SA and hence its mobile unit SFR. This move foiled attempts by Vodafone to gain a controlling interest in France’s second largest mobile phone operator.
Vodafone has made no secret of its desire to gain control of the operator, and takeover speculation was rekindled in December 2003 after Vodafone boss Arun Sarin refused to rule out buying the whole of Vivendi in order to get his hands on SFR.
Vivendi is expected to be pressed to discuss its medium-term strategy for SFR when it reports its annual results later this week.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
