Gent promises further purchases as Vodafone advances

Chris Gent, CEO of Vodafone has said he is still looking to make more acquisitions on the back of strong half yearly results.

He said: "There'll be nothing on the scale of Mannesmann or AirTouch, but there are bargains about now and very few people who can afford to buy." He added that the group had expected to pay up to £25bn for UMTS licenses across Europe and the actual outlay had fallen well below that amount. "Now that figure looks more like being between £15bn £17bn with some relatively small auctions left to go," he said.