Vodafone sells further Vantage Towers stake, Entain appoints new CEO

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Vodafone Group said it had sold a further 10% stake in the joint venture that co-controls Vantage Towers for €1.3bn to reduce its debt. The sale achieves the 50:50 joint ownership structure with the consortium of infrastructure investors led by Global Infrastructure Partners and KKR that was envisaged when the co-control partnership was first announced, Vodafone said on Monday. Vodafone has now received €6.6bn in total from the sell down in Vantage Towers. Oak Holdings owns 89.3% of Vantage Towers, and Vodafone's effective ownership is now 44.7% following the latest deal.

Entain announced the appointment of Gavin Isaacs as its new chief executive officer on Monday, effective from 2 September. The FTSE 100 gambling giant said Isaacs would bring more than 25 years of experience in the sports betting, gaming, and lottery industries, having held leadership roles in prominent companies like Scientific Games Corporation and DraftKings. As part of its succession plan, Stella David would assist Isaacs during the transition period and then succeed Barry Gibson as chair of Entain after his retirement on 30 September.

Newspaper round-up

Kamala Harris, the vice-president, has emerged as the frontrunner to replace President Biden as the Democratic nominee for the election against Donald Trump in November. Biden, 81, announced yesterday afternoon that he would drop out of the race. In the hours that followed, Harris, 59, was endorsed by leading Democrats, prospective rivals and the chairs of all 50 state parties. – The Times

Keir Starmer has been urged to follow through on the previous government’s plan for a £100m-a-year levy on gambling companies. In an open letter to the prime minister, “deeply concerned” advocates of the proposal issued a warning that a delay could cost lives. The Conservatives published a white paper on reform of gambling regulation last year but many of its proposals have been left up in the air by Labour’s election victory. One significant measure yet to be finalised is a statutory levy on gambling companies’ revenues to fund research into problem gambling, education and treatment. – The Guardian

The UK economy will need to grow at three times this year’s expected rate if the new Labour government is to avoid a hole in the public finances, the IMF has warned, in a stark illustration of the challenges facing chancellor Rachel Reeves as she prepares for a landmark Budget this autumn. GDP growth would need to be around 2.6 per cent every fiscal year from 2025-26 if Labour is to stabilise public debt by 2028-29 without extra tax rises or spending cuts, according to IMF staff estimates provided to the FT. – Financial Times

Britain’s least punctual railway line will be among the last to fall into public hands under Labour’s nationalisation plans, Telegraph analysis suggests. Labour has vowed to bring Britain’s railways under state control but has indicated that it will allow contracts to reach their agreed conclusion before returning them to the public sector, rather than intervening early to seize back those networks with the poorest record of delays and cancellations. – The Telegraph

NHS patients have been warned GP services “cannot be resumed immediately”, and stranded holidaymakers told it could take “days” to get them to their destinations, as the effects of Friday’s global IT outage continue. CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company at the heart of the crisis, said on Sunday that it had deployed a fix for the “defect” with its software, which has caused chaos around the world for businesses that use Microsoft operating systems. But the outage has caused a backlog to crucial services, including the NHS, which will take time to clear, the British Medical Association (BMA) said. – The Guardian

US close

Stocks on Wall Street closed in the red on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.93% at 40,287.53.

The S&P 500 lost 0.71% to end the session at 5,505.00, and the Nasdaq Composite was off 0.81% to settle at 17,726.94.