Vodafone Spain announced plans to cut nearly 1,200 jobs, representing more than a third of its workforce, just weeks after its acquisition by an investment fund.
The company has “submitted a redundancy plan to the unions for a maximum of 1,198 employees.”
It accounts for nearly 37 percent of its 3,268-strong staff.
Vodafone Spain stated that this move is essential to ensure the company’s future viability and competitiveness.
The decision to implement the redundancy plan is driven by “economic, productive, and organizational factors” amid a “difficult financial and commercial slump.”
This announcement follows Zegona’s completion of its acquisition of Vodafone Spain for 5.0 billion euros, with the approval of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s left-wing government.
Britain’s Vodafone had previously announced in October that it would sell its Spanish business to the London-based investment fund as part of a strategy to streamline its European operations in response to shareholder pressure.
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Last month, Zegona initiated a 500-million-euro share buyback program as part of its plan to return 2.0 billion euros to shareholders over the next 12 months.
This move came on the heels of Vodafone’s agreement to merge its UK operations with Three UK, owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, to create the largest operator in Britain with 27 million customers.
A central goal of this merger is to accelerate the rollout of faster 5G connectivity in the UK, which is a key focus for Vodafone, serving over 300 million mobile customers across Europe and Africa.
The expansion of 5G in the UK has faced challenges due to the country’s ban on Chinese giant Huawei, a major supplier of mobile network equipment.
