Liberty Global (LBTYA) Stock Jumps 17% on Vodafone VodafoneZiggo Acquisition Deal

TLDR

• Liberty Global (LBTYA) will acquire Vodafone’s 50% stake in VodafoneZiggo for €1.0 billion in cash plus a 10% equity stake in a new entity called Ziggo Group.
• Ziggo Group will combine Liberty Global’s interests in VodafoneZiggo (Netherlands) and Telenet (Belgium), forming a Benelux telecom holding company.
• The deal targets €500 million in adjusted free cash flow by 2028 and synergies worth ~€1 billion net present value.
• Liberty Global plans to list Ziggo Group on Euronext Amsterdam in 2027 and spin off 90% of shares to its own shareholders.
• LBTYA stock jumped 16.76% on the news, with the deal expected to close in the second half of 2026.

Liberty Global (LBTYA) stock surged nearly 17% on February 18, 2026, after the company announced a deal to buy Vodafone Group’s 50% stake in their Dutch joint venture VodafoneZiggo.

Liberty Global plc, LBTYA

The purchase price is €1.0 billion in cash, plus a 10% equity interest in a newly formed holding company called Ziggo Group. That new entity will bring together Liberty Global’s stakes in both VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands and Telenet in Belgium.

The move creates a single Benelux-focused telecom company under one roof, while both VodafoneZiggo and Telenet will keep their current brand names and existing management teams.

Liberty Global Chairman and CEO Mike Fries called it a milestone in the company’s long-term commitment to the Benelux region. The deal fits neatly into Liberty Global’s broader push to consolidate assets and return value to shareholders.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals. Goldman Sachs and LionTree are advising Liberty Global on the deal.

What Ziggo Group Looks Like on Paper

The combined Ziggo Group is targeting approximately €500 million in adjusted free cash flow by 2028. The company also expects synergies and incremental services with a combined net present value of around €1 billion.

Liberty Global is also working to reduce Ziggo Group’s leverage to roughly 4.5x by 2028. To help with that, it is currently selling approximately 50% of its stake in Wyre to support Telenet’s deleveraging process.

On the financing side, the company has entered into long-term service agreements with Vodafone to maintain operational continuity during the transition.

Plans for a 2027 Stock Market Listing

Liberty Global plans to list Ziggo Group on Euronext Amsterdam in 2027. Once listed, it intends to spin off 90% of its Ziggo Group shares to Liberty Global shareholders, pending shareholder approval.

That spin-off structure means existing LBTYA investors would directly own shares in the new Benelux telecom company once it hits the public markets.

The listing plan adds a concrete timeline to what could otherwise look like a long-horizon restructuring story.

LBTYA stock was trading at a Price/Book ratio of just 0.3 before the deal announcement, according to InvestingPro data, suggesting the market had been pricing in some skepticism about the company’s asset value.

The most recent analyst rating on LBTYA is a Hold with a $11.50 price target. The stock’s current market cap sits at approximately $3.7 billion.

Average daily trading volume for LBTYA is around 2.2 million shares.

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