Blackstone Denies Report Of Consortium Bid For Vodafone

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Private equity company Blackstone Group, Monday denied reports that it is working on a bid with a host of other companies to break up Vodafone Group.

"We know nothing of this," a Blackstone spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires.

A report published in the UK press Monday said U.S. telecoms company Verizon Communications, Spain's Telefonica and Blackstone were looking to fund a 160 pence a share bid to buy Vodafone and carve the assets up between them. At that price, a bid would value the world's largest mobile phone company by sales at GBP96 billion.

The report said the plan was being pushed by JP Morgan Cazenove, the US investment bank. However, JP Morgan upgraded Vodafone's shares Monday, a move that could risk regulatory scrunity if the bank were preparing a bid behind the scenes.

Company Web site: Http://www.vodafone.com

-By Nic Fildes, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9264; nicolas.fildes@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 10th April 2006