Two of the world’s biggest operators – Vodafone and China Mobile – announced their financial separation on Wednesday, marking the start of Vodafone’s abandonment of its minority investments.

UK-based Vodafone announced the sale of its entire 3.2 per cent interest in China Mobile, for a cash consideration of around £4.3bn before tax and other costs. Approximately 70 per cent of the net proceeds will be returned to shareholders by way of a share buyback with the remainder used to reduce the group’s net debt. Vodafone had owned a stake in the leading Chinese carrier since 2000, following a cooperation agreement between the two companies.

Foreign companies have few possible paths into China’s telecom sector, which is dominated by the giant state-owned parents of China Mobile, China Unicom Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. Investment in those Hong Kong-listed units, like Vodafone and others have done, grants little influence over the operation of their parent companies and doesn’t license a foreign company to offer telecom services in China. Despite this corporate shift, Vodafone executives noted the company would continue with its commercial and technology cooperation with China Mobile in areas such as roaming, network roadmap development, multinational customers and green technology.

Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone said the move was in line with his stated portfolio strategy, suggesting that other minority disposals may be on the horizon. It’s understood that holdings in Poland’s Polkomtel and France’s SFR may also be up for sale, and there is of course the controversial question of the 45 per cent stake in US carrier Verizon Wireless that rears its head on a frequent basis.

Sony Ericsson has additionally and in turn issued a statement, announcing that it has partnered China Mobile, to launch its first smartphone to support the country’s SCMDA network, in a bid to strengthen its position in the region.

Room for cooperation also shrank when China’s government tapped China Mobile to build and operate a network using the country’s homegrown third-generation mobile communications standard, TD-SCDMA, a technology not used by major global operators such as Vodafone.

“China Mobile has a problem, which is TD-SCDMA,” said Mr. Clark at BDA China. Since that standard is mainly used in China, “there’s less opportunity for cooperation on a whole range of areas.”

Despite Vodafone’s stake sale in China, Telefonica SA of Spain looks to be going in the opposite direction, saying in June that it plans to increase its stake in China Unicom from 8.4% to 10% this year.

But foreign carriers may not be able to lure their Chinese counterparts with mere investment as much as in past years, said Mr. Clark. “The partners that you have to negotiate with don’t really need the money,” he said.