London - Vodafone Group shares turned higher late on Tuesday, with traders citing a Nikkei report suggesting the British mobile operator may become a takeover target for Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank.
A Vodafone spokesperson said the company had no comment. A SoftBank spokesperson also declined to comment.
Vodafone shares closed up 1.1% at 208.90 pence, having traded as low as 205.50 pence earlier on Tuesday.
SoftBank shares were unchanged at ¥7 542 in Wednesday morning trade in Tokyo, compared with a 0.8% rise in Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average.
A story on Monday in the Japanese-language Nikkei Business Daily on possible SoftBank acquisition targets quoted an unidentified executive as acknowledging that a Vodafone acquisition was the type of bold move that SoftBank's acquisitive CEO Masayoshi Son might consider.
"Oh, a Vodafone acquisition! That's just the sort of thing that someone like our CEO might do. Among other things, it's a company we're familiar with," it quoted the executive as saying.
The article also said there were views that SoftBank would take another stab at acquiring T-Mobile US. The Japanese company's US carrier, Sprint, dropped a bid to acquire T-Mobile after US regulators showed no sign of softening their resistance to a deal, although a SoftBank executive did not rule out the possibility of a future bid.