Vodafone Group plans to pay £2 billion (€2.3 billion) to shareholders after it gets a £2.8 billion dividend from its co-owned US unit Verizon Wireless in early 2012.

The move should resolve a long-running stand-off between the two parent companies of the US wireless service.

Vodafone, which in May flagged its expectation of receiving a dividend from Verizon next year, said it planned to pay shareholders 4 pence per share in February and would use the balance of the proceeds to pay down its debt.

The payment to Vodafone is €696 million less than the amount the British company’s chief financial officer said he expected as recently as June 30th. – (Reuters)