Vodafone is investing in a fund that makes money off delayed bills

The phone operator takes as long as seven weeks to pay bills. Now it invests in a fund that profits from this delay.

Big companies often leave their suppliers hanging for weeks without pay, but Vodafone Group Plc is taking this a step further: it’s investing in a fund that makes money off the delay.

The British phone operator poured 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) into the 2.4 billion-euro fund run by beleaguered Swiss asset manager GAM Holding AG, which generates returns by paying suppliers early if they accept less than they’re owed.

The fund is full of invoices from many of Vodafone’s 15,000 vendors of anything from antenna systems to furniture, according to three people with knowledge of the investment, who declined