Vodafone has borrowed US$850m from Export Development Canada (EDC) to buy equipment and services from Canadian vendor BlackBerry, one of its main suppliers, and other local companies.
Of this amount, US$750m will be used to finance purchases from…
Vodafone has borrowed US$850m from Export Development Canada (EDC) to buy equipment and services from Canadian vendor BlackBerry, one of its main suppliers, and other local companies.
Of this amount, US$750m will be used to finance purchases from BlackBerry, while the remaining US$100m will be used for general corporate purposes, an EDC spokesman said.
He added that EDC will work with Vodafone to identify Canadian tech companies that can support Vodafone in its new investment strategy.
“Very simply, Vodafone’s global presence makes it a company that Canada’s telecom sector has to have a relationship with,” said Carl Burlock, senior VP, financing and investment at EDC, in a statement.
“At its core, EDC’s relationship with Vodafone is about building connections between them and our Canadian telecom suppliers.”
Since 2003, EDC said it has lent C$25bn in loans to more than 200 foreign companies.
Earlier this year, it arranged a US$200m financing for Saudi Arabia’s Mobily and provided over €180m in financing to Spanish incumbent Telefonica. Last month, EDC also lent Carlos Slim’s America Movil US$125m as part of a larger US$2.5bn credit facility.
Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 30 September 2014, the telco had 438 million mobile customers and 11 million fixed broadband customers.
