French billionaire Xavier Niel is set to become Vodafone Group's largest shareholder, after UAE telecoms group e& agreed to sell its entire stake in the British telecoms group for almost $6 billion. The deal gives one of Europe's most active telecoms dealmakers, who has long championed consolidation in the continent's fragmented industry, the largest stake in Britain's biggest mobile operator.
Vega, the acquisition vehicle wholly owned by the Niel family group, said it had struck a binding agreement to buy the roughly 16.2% stake for about £4.4 billion ($5.91 billion).
