Liberty Global (LBTYA) Stock: 17% Surge After Vodafone VodafoneZiggo Stake Purchase

TLDR

• Liberty Global agreed to buy Vodafone’s 50% stake in VodafoneZiggo for €1.0 billion cash plus a 10% equity stake in a new company called Ziggo Group.
• Ziggo Group will combine VodafoneZiggo (Netherlands) and Telenet (Belgium) into one Benelux telecom holding company.
• The deal targets €500 million in adjusted free cash flow by 2028 and ~€1 billion in synergies.
• Liberty Global plans to list Ziggo Group on Euronext Amsterdam in 2027 and spin off 90% of shares to LBTYA shareholders.
• LBTYA stock jumped nearly 17% on the news; deal expected to close in H2 2026.

Liberty Global (LBTYA) stock jumped close to 17% on February 18, 2026, after announcing a deal to acquire Vodafone’s 50% stake in their Dutch joint venture VodafoneZiggo.

The deal is structured as €1.0 billion in cash plus a 10% equity interest in a newly created holding company, Ziggo Group. That entity will consolidate Liberty Global’s positions in VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands and Telenet in Belgium.

Liberty Global plc, LBTYA

Both VodafoneZiggo and Telenet will keep their existing brand names and management teams in place after the transaction closes.

Goldman Sachs and LionTree are serving as financial advisers to Liberty Global. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals.

The Numbers Behind the Deal

Ziggo Group is targeting approximately €500 million in adjusted free cash flow by 2028. The company also projects synergies and incremental services worth roughly €1 billion in net present value.

Liberty Global is targeting a reduction in Ziggo Group’s leverage to around 4.5x by 2028, supported by EBITDA growth and asset sales. As part of that effort, it is currently offloading approximately 50% of its stake in Wyre to support Telenet’s deleveraging.

Long-term service agreements between Liberty Global and Vodafone will keep operations aligned through the transition period.

A 2027 IPO in the Works

Liberty Global plans to list Ziggo Group on Euronext Amsterdam in 2027. Following the listing, it intends to spin off 90% of its Ziggo Group shares directly to Liberty Global shareholders, subject to shareholder approval.

That structure gives existing LBTYA investors a direct stake in the new Benelux telecom company once it reaches public markets.

Before the announcement, LBTYA was trading at a Price/Book ratio of just 0.3, according to InvestingPro data. The most recent analyst rating on the stock is a Hold with a $11.50 price target.

Liberty Global’s current market cap stands at approximately $3.7 billion, with average daily trading volume of around 2.2 million shares.

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