European markets open mixed; Vodafone confirms advanced talks with Swisscom over Italian unit sale

European stocks opened slightly lower Wednesday, continuing cautious sentiment seen this week. The regional Stoxx 600 index was flat at 8:05 a.m. in London and sectors traded in an narrow range, with mining slipping 0.6% as telecom gained 0.4%. Shares of Vodafone ticked 2.2% higher after the company confirmed advanced talks with Swisscom over the sale of its Italian business for 8 billion euros ($8.7 billion) in cash. Elsewhere, U.S. stock futures ticked lower on Tuesday evening as investors looked ahead to a key inflation report — the personal consumption expenditures reading for January — on Thursday. It is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation. Asia-Pacific stock markets were mostly lower overnight as New Zealand’s central bank kept its interest rate steady, while Hong Kong’s property index rallied after the city’s budget announcement. Vodafone Group on Wednesday confirmed it is in exclusive talks with Swisscom over the sale of its Italian business, and that a deal has been agreed, subject to confirmation, for 8 billion euros ($8.66 billion) on a debt and cash free basis. The British telecoms firm rejected an updated proposal from France’s Iliad to merge their Italian businesses at the end of January. The company had offered Vodafone 6.6 billion euros in cash and 2 billion euros in a shareholder loan. “Vodafone has engaged extensively with several parties to explore market consolidation in Italy and believes this potential transaction delivers the best combination of value creation, upfront cash proceeds and transaction certainty for Vodafone shareholders,” the company said Wednesday of the Swisscom transaction. It also stressed that the transaction was not certain and that a further announcement would be made in future.