Vodafone has completed its £9bn sale of its operation in Japan. The giant cellco announced last month that it planned to flog its 97.68 per cent stake in Vodafone Japan to Softbank Corporation.

Now that the deal has been done and dusted Vodafone plans to return around £6bn to shareholders later this summer.

In a statement Voda chief exec Arun Sarin said: "I am pleased to announce the completion of the sale of Vodafone Japan to SoftBank. We maintain a strong relationship with SoftBank and we look forward to continuing to benefit from insights in the important Japanese mobile market." ®