Vodafone now fully owns the UK’s VodafoneThree | Infinium-tech

Vodafone and Three announced plans to merge in the UK in 2023, and the integration was ultimately given the go-ahead by regulators in December 2024. The merged entity, VodafoneThree, officially began operations on May 31, 2025, with Vodafone holding 51% of the shares and CK Hutchison (Three’s owner) holding 49% of the shares.

Now, almost exactly a year later, Vodafone is buying CK Hutchison’s stake, and will thus take full ownership of VodafoneThree. This will cause a loss of £4.3 billion to Vodafone. The deal will certainly need to be approved by regulators, and that is expected to happen sometime during the second half of this year.

Interestingly, under the terms of the merger between Vodafone and Three, the former would have had the option to take full ownership three years after completion, but it decided to take this step sooner than expected.

Vodafone says there will be no changes to the brands – both Vodafone and Three will continue to operate under the new ownership. The deal is the latest step in Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle’s strategy to focus on the company’s biggest markets, which are the UK and Germany. During his tenure, Vodafone has exited Spain and Italy and will sell its stake in a Dutch joint venture.

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