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The biggest mobile-phone company Vodafone Group Plc is pulling cash out of Greece and ridirecting it to the United Kingdom, following in the footsteps of the efforts of other companies (GlaxoSmithKline Plc and WPP Plc) to hedge against the European debt crisis, reports Bloomberg.
 
Vodafone wants to be protected in case of a further deepening European debt crisis, if the situation arises. Asked about the possibility of Greece's default, the Chief Financial Officer of the mobile-phone company Andy Halford said, "it’s obviously something we’ve been having a close look at". The company resources have been put into the safe haven in Newbury, England, showing how British companies are trying to avoid potential losses from countries using the euro currency. Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline began repatriating cash from eurozone banks to domestic banks early last year. Paul Richardson, Finance Director of WPP, said yesterday that the company has been actively transferring funds from European to U.S. banks, exchanging the European currency into dollars. When asked, "What would happen if the guillotine were to come down?" Richardson said that everyone has followed the developments and has taken the necessary legal advice to respond. "We have not left any cash in most European banks," excluding those in Germany, said GlaxoSmithKline CEO Andrew Witty.

Greece is due to make the 14.5 billion euro bond payment on 20 March and the country is struggling to secure financing to avoid a collapse of the economy that may spread throughout the eurozone. Greek Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos has left for Brussels today, after the country's political leaders failed to agree on fiscal cuts that the new bailout to the country would bring. Greece is struggling to get a new 130 billion euro bailout so as not to default. The European Commission and the International Monetary Fund gave the Greek government another 15 days to find measures to save 300 million euro as politicians are not inclined to further cut pensions in the country.