Vodafone Invests in Fund Making Money Off Its Own Late Payments
The phone operator takes as long as seven weeks to pay bills. Now it invests in a fund that profits from this delay.
A Vodafone Group Plc logo.
Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
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Big companies often leave their suppliers hanging for weeks without pay, but Vodafone Group Plc is taking this a step further: it’s investing in a fund that makes money off the delay.
The British phone operator poured 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) into the 2.4 billion-euro fund run by beleaguered Swiss asset manager GAM Holding AG, which generates returns by paying suppliers early if they accept less than they’re owed.