Proactive Investors - A €8 billion cash price is being mooted by Vodafone (LON:VOD) in talks with Swisscom, which is lower than the €10.45 billion price that had been suggested in an earlier deal the FTSE 100 company rejected from Paris-based Iliad.
The French telecommunications company proposed a merger deal in December where the two companies' Italian businesses would be combined, with each parent still holding a 50% share.
Under this proposal, Iliad would pay Vodafone €6.5 billion in cash plus an additional €2 billion in a shareholder loan.
Having rejected the Iliad proposal last month, Vodafone said today that it believes the potential transaction with Swisscom "delivers the best combination of value creation, upfront cash proceeds and transaction certainty for Vodafone shareholders".
FTSE 100 called higher
The FTSE 100 has been called higher on Wednesday following a flat few days and mixed Wall Street trading overnight.
Spread-betters have the index rising around 4 points, a day after it closed 1.28 points lower at 7,683.02.
News from Vodafone might provide a boost to the London benchmark, as the stumbling telecoms giant said it is now in exclusive discussions with Swisscom about a cash sale of its Italian arm.
The pair currently are talking about Swisscom buying Vodafone Italy for a total value of €8 billion excluding debt and cash.
Elsewhere we have results from Aston Martin (LON:AML), Just Eat (LON:JETJ) and builder Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW).
Overnight, the S&P 500 rose 0.17% and the Nasdaq 0.37% but the old-school Dow Jones fell 0.25%.
Much earlier this morning down under, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand held monetary policy unchanged, in a move that was being watched closely in the northern hemisphere.
"In contrast to other G10 central banks eyeing the start of their respective rate cutting cycles, markets have speculated in an additional rate hike from the RBNZ, but the tone of today's announcement was clearly to the dovish side, suggesting that the current level of policy rate is seen as sufficiently restrictive," said analysts at Danske Bank.