Vodafone Group Plc is moving cash from Greece into the U.K.“every evening,” mirroring efforts by companies such asGlaxoSmithKline Plc, WPP Plc and Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc tohedge against the European debt crisis.

Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile-phone company, is alsolooking at billing in a different currency “if the situationarises,” Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford said on a conferencecall today. Asked about the possibility of a Greek default, he said“it's obviously something we've been having a close look at.”

The cash sweep by Newbury, England-based Vodafone shows how U.K.companies are trying to protect themselves against potentialwritedowns and losses in countries using the euro. DrugmakerGlaxoSmithKline started repatriating cash held in most euro-areabanks early last year. WPP Finance Director Paul Richardson saidyesterday that the biggest advertising company rounds up excesseuros from its banks in Europe and moves them to the U.S. wherethey are exchanged for dollars every day.

“What would happen if the guillotine were to come down?”Richardson said in an interview. “Everyone has had a very closelook at in-country arrangements and people have taken legaladvice,” he said, adding that WPP “feels reassured that we're in asgood a position as we could be if one of the countries had amassive writedown.”

Greece faces a 14.5 billion-euro ($19.3 billion) bond payment onMarch 20 and is struggling to secure financing to avert a collapseof the economy that could spark a new round of contagion in theeuro. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos heads to Brusselstoday after politicians failed to finalize new austerity measuresneeded to secure a 130 billion euro bailout package.

Talks stumbled over the issue of pension cuts and officials fromthe European Union and the International Monetary Fund gave Greece15 more days to identify measures totaling 300 million euros.

Reckitt Benckiser, the Slough, England-based maker of Dettolhandwash and Nurofen painkillers, is “sucking out cash” from itseuro operations on a daily basis due to fears of a liquiditycrisis, Chief Executive Officer Rakesh Kapoor told reporters in abriefing yesterday. “We have always swept up cash from Europe intothe group and we have increased the frequency of that,” CFO LizDoherty said on a conference call.

'Tens of Millions'

GlaxoSmithKline, the U.K.'s largest drugmaker, moves “tens ofmillions of pounds” in cash every day out of banks in Europe intoaccounts in the U.K., CEO Andrew Witty said Feb. 7.

“We don't leave any cash in most European countries,” excludingGermany, Witty said. “Any cash that we bring in during the day getsswept out of the local banks into banks that we think are robustand secure.”

Vodafone today reported slowing service revenue growth for thethree month through December, missing analyst estimates, asconsumers in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal cut spending.

This week, Vodafone abandoned an attempt to merge its Greek unitwith rival Wind Hellas after facing European Union regulatoryopposition. A successful merger would have allowed Vodafone toreduce costs and better compete in the country with HellenicTelecommunications Organization SA, or OTE, which is controlled byDeutsche Telekom AG.

OTE told investors in November that it has moved cash not neededas working capital to international banks within and outsideGreece.

Vodafone in November booked an impairment loss of 450 millionpounds for its business in Greece, citing lower cash flow and anincrease in discount rates. In the year-earlier period, Vodafonehad already lowered the value of its Greek operations by 800million pounds.

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