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Vodafone vaults into Mexico
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January 6, 2001: 9:00 a.m. ET
UK cell phone company buys stake in Grupo Iusacell for $973.4M
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Vodafone Group, continuing its global buyout binge, agreed Friday to buy a 34.5 percent stake in Mexico's Grupo Iusacell for $973.4 million.
The UK-based leader in mobile phone service is buying the stake from Grupo Peralta, the Mexican cell group said in a statement late on Friday.
Through the purchase, Vodafone, which currently has some 78 million mobile phone service subscribers worldwide, adds its first asset in Mexico into its large portfolio. Grupo Iusacell is that country's second-largest mobile phone service provider, offering service to 1.5 million subscribers mainly in central Mexico, including Mexico City.
The deal requires regulatory approvals in Mexico as well as the signing of a shareholder agreement between Vodafone and its main U.S. partner Verizon Communications, which owns about 37 percent of Grupo Iusacell. Verizon's subsidiaries have operating control of Iusacell.
Mexico's fast-growing, 11-million cell phone market is already being hotly contested by major global telecom companies such as Spain's Telefonica, former Mexican state monopoly Telefonos de Mexico and Verizon.
Shares of Vodafone (VOD) rose 3.25 pence to close at 242.25 pence on the London Stock exchange Friday. Iusacell (CEL: Research, Estimates) rose 25 cents to close at $11.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.
-- from staff and wire reports 
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Vodafone
Grupo Iusacell
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