Charles Jillings, CEO of Utilico, energized by strong economic momentum across Latin America. Watch the video here.
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“Reviewing the geographical spread to create a focused European footprint, as well as radically improving efficiency, should be the next steps,” he told The Sunday Times. “These actions should return Vodafone to its successful roots as a star European asset, create value for all stakeholders and lead to a revamped equity story.”
He added: “The right candidate must be ready to take action and to rapidly implement significant change to return Vodafone to greatness.”
And after dumping its stake in Vodafone, making a complete exit a couple of months ago, Cevian is already considering a possible return to the shareholder register. A source close to the firm said it continued to see significant long-term potential in a restructuring of Vodafone and could take up the case again.
Read, the former chief financial officer, took over in October 2018 from Vittorio Colao, the Italian who went on to become digital minister in his home country. Colao was hailed for selling Vodafone’s 45 per cent stake in US business Verizon Wireless for $130 billion in 2014, which reaped huge rewards for shareholders.
However, his €18.4 billion takeover of Liberty Global’s cable assets in Germany and central and eastern Europe, just before he stepped down, left Read with a big headache. Not only did it saddle Vodafone with huge debts, which stood at more than €45 billion (£39 billion) at the end of September, but problems soon emerged in the German business.
At the time of the deal in 2018, the German arm was growing at a rate of 5 per cent, making it the jewel in the crown. But then the business hit the buffers and went into reverse. The German fixed-line business makes up a fifth of Vodafone’s entire profits, making it the key cog in the global machine.
One big problem was a new telecoms law in Germany that forced housing associations, with which Vodafone has deals, to stop bundling cable TV in with rental fees. That meant a wave of customers switched off when they weren’t forced to pay for the service. On a call with analysts last month, Read conceded that the company had “dropped the ball” on the new telecoms law.
Trevor Green, head of UK equities at Aviva Investors, a top 15 Vodafone shareholder, said Read had received a “hospital pass” in the form of the Liberty deal, inheriting a “highly indebted business, reducing his strategic options”.
The Liberty deal came just before a Europe-wide race to build fibre for broadband, rather than old-fashioned cable, which led Virgin Media to upgrade its cable network in the UK to fibre. In Germany, Vodafone, too, has had to upgrade its cable network to keep pace with the competition.
Vodafone Deutschland’s chief executive, Hannes Ametsreiter, left in the summer after seven years in charge. He was replaced by Philippe Rogge, a former Microsoft executive. In October, there was a review of the German business that thrashed out a much simpler plan.
A few weeks later, Read completed a deal to sell up to 50 per cent of Vodafone’s
How Vodafone ousted boss Nick Read — and what its activist investor wants next
French tycoon Xavier Niel has laid out his blueprint for the struggling telecoms giant, while investor Cevian eyes a comeback
Sunday December 11 2022, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
As nervous England fans settled into their seats for the team’s knockout game against Senegal last Sunday, Vodafone’s directors assembled in front of their computer screens.
The Belgian chairman of the FTSE 100 telecoms giant, Jean-François van Boxmeer, had called a virtual board meeting and waited for the two-hour slot between France and England’s matches to hold the talks. The former Heineken boss transmitted a simple message to his directors: it was time for the company to hang up on Nick Read, the under-pressure chief executive.
Van Boxmeer had held a discussion with Read a few days earlier in which they agreed a new chief executive was needed to improve the company’s operational performance, speed up deals and, ultimately, revive the ailing share price.
On the virtual call, van Boxmeer’s fellow directors agreed with the verdict and it came as no surprise to anyone who dialled in. The board broke the news to senior executives at half-time in the England match so as not to interrupt the game, before announcing it publicly at 7am the following morning.
The decision brought the curtain down on a 20-year career at Vodafone. However, the final four of those years, when Read was in charge, had become increasingly difficult as he grappled with huge debts and an unwieldy empire on the wane.
Read, 58, was slow to execute on deals in countries such as Spain and the key German division was misfiring. The pressure was also mounting from a new set of vocal investors.
It emerged this year that Cevian Capital, Europe’s largest activist investor, had built up a stake to become a top ten Vodafone shareholder and wanted Read to offload struggling divisions. Then in May, Abu Dhabi’s Etisalat, which recently rebranded as “e&”, bought a near-10 per cent stake for £3.3 billion. The top shareholder said it was confident the company could improve its performance operationally through “other potential strategic transactions”.
A few months later in September, another troublemaker arrived on the register. French telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel snapped up a 2.5 per cent stake worth £750 million through his Atlas Investissement vehicle.
It was the board, rather than the vocal shareholders, who made the final call on Read. But it is those shareholders that are now calling on the new chief to dial up the speed of the deals to simplify Vodafone, whose share price has nearly halved under Read.
This weekend, in a rare set of public comments, Niel said Vodafone had become “too fat, too slow, too complex”. He said it “must move fast” to slim down and slash debt by “selling infrastructure
long time lurker, the gravity pull on Vod this is too much, debt doesn't help, needs a proper positive catalyst. i am bearish long term until things change drastically.
what do i know though, i got caught out in this twice before (Brexit vote, and 18 months ago) , keeping some powder dry for the next leg down.
*SP
Thanks good find. Must admit I thought you were danielh, aka, Glen Miller.
Certainly food for thought. I suppose the question is, does the new ceo adopt the times strategy and concentrate the vod footprint by disposing 10% of the operations and getting rid of the 'small opcos' to pay down debt. As the debt maturity is average 11 years, I assume that means the near term debt to 2030 is tendered for cash leaving the remaing debt less than 2% coupon 2030/2040+. The continuing business presumably grows with economic recovery, german roll out but what about Vodacom and EIA.
Assuming everyone likes the new CEO, the SO should soar?
9th Dec closing SP 86.75p
SFDC 86.5p
Doyen Dan 95.2p
Robleo 91.5p
Aspers 93.6p
Mikey 95p
Exil 92p
Abject 93.05p
Wm2020 93p
Sotonspike 100p
Velo 90p
Kiwitwo 92.5p
GutterS 89p
Fredrubble 92.69p
Sigma 85p
SlartiB 87.8p
Roofer 92.15p
Poker chips
I imagine the bod are in a closed period, given an abscence of a permenant ceo and the tower sale
Hi Pokerchips, where do you suggest looking for an Options Market overview for UK-listed companies. Thx
Accolade goes to another new contestant
"SFDC.meeeeeeee"
"Speech speech " SFDC
Closing SP 86.75p well done
Full list will follow
"Maybe even Fleccy´s Verizon will turn up and save them the trouble :-)"
I realise my talk of a Verizon/Vodafone merger is out there, and I say it with my my tongue slightly in my cheek, but there is a possibility.
My reasoning:
The events leading up to Vodafone's takeover of C&WW, with Gavin Darby being an ex Vodafone executive coming out of nowhere to become CEO, and Vodafone then taking over C&WW in short order.
Colao has recently rejoined the board of Verizon, after previously leaving to go into Italian politics, to the surprise of some.
Dunne left Verizon in 2021 and if he is offered the CEO position it will be reminiscent of the Darby/Vodafone/C&WW series of events.
Tentative view, but not beyond the realms of possibility.
if the Chairman decided to Buy on the lows , I think the market would sink the price lower ......I cant see the City being in any mood to let a Chairman, whom some criticise,get away with buying a low when he may well have played a part in creating the price crash
A new external CEO is gonna take time to speak to all the key stakeholders and get expert opinion etc and maybe then have a CMD ... going to take time
....unless they appoint the interim CEO when the whole thing could progress much quicker
Maybe even Fleccy´s Verizon will turn up and save them the trouble :-)
A lot can be assumed by the lack of any director buys even at todays price of 86p.
Having sold here in the 130’s I am itching to get back in but the lack of current director interest is a biggy for me. If a worthy CEO is put in place with a master plan for addressing VOD’s current issues I can see this getting back to £1 quickly.
Finger hovering over the buy button so come on VOD directors have some faith, spend some of your heavily inflated salaries & back your company. G L All.
If Ronan Dunne gets the CEO position at Vodafone, then I'll be really convinced a tie up between Verizon and Vodafone is on the cards.
"I personally dont think the City and Wall Street care about " it seems to me just something sold to Retail as being somehow important"
Like Bitcoin?
I just know that this b***h is gonna finish in the red.
The sooner it gets shaken out the better.
That way i won't get tempted, lol.
Cos i am sometimes a reckless gambler.
Compound
" I'm leaning towards towards a big santa rally that could last until early/mid Jan, "
I am not sure how big , but a relief rally in pre Christmas week looks ...possible ..but I agree ..a revisit to feet on the floor come January ....... The US needs more pain to get the inflation right down IMO
Lower volumes over Xmas /New Year will cause some volatility no doubt
next week..haha yes a week of FOMO or FOBI
....... one thing is for sure though Powell does NOT want a silly overdone market rally ..he will no doubt speak cautiously and say the job isn't done and they watch data and stay willing to act if necessarily
ALB
Agreed Poker - especially at the moment in the US. Wild and dramatic swings based purely on sentiment. Look the massive rally we had in July/August - all because the markets latched on to and misinterpreted one thing Powell said.
Next week is going to be fun. US inflation figures, BOE and Fed meeting. Markets currently look poised for another big move, but impossible to say in which direction, if you knew the data in advance. It will all be down to interpretation and sentiment and will probably result in a move which goes way above or below what fundamentals indicate current prices should be.
S&P in particular is very interesting. On the daily chart it's been in an uptrend for 2 months and has bounced off the bottom support and moving towards the top of the channel it's been in. Pan out to the weekly chart though and you'll see it's still in a downtrend and is heading towards a line of resistance that it hit a couple of weeks ago again.
Charts are indicating a big move, but the direction will be dependent on the interpretation of all the news next week. I'm leaning towards towards a big santa sally that could last until early/mid Jan, but not going to bet the farm on it and will be ready if it swings the other way.
meshtrader
yes too true ..look at who was fooled by the likes of Sam Bankman-Fried and Elizabeth Holmes ...something that seemed so good they were blinded by the possible flaws ...
I personally dont think the City and Wall Street care about " fair value" ...I dont think they really see it as existing on a day to day basis at least with the Investment Banker Traders .....it seems to me just something sold to Retail as being somehow important
Dodgy - technical trading is all based around one thing - price action, and price action is determined by and is an expression of current sentiment. Fundamentals may play a part in the current sentiment, but not always.
Charts won't make an SP go in a certain direction - the current sentiment will. News always plays a major role in sentiment, although it's the reaction to the news that's drives the price. Charts are useful to provide a framework of where the price might go, once the direction is in place. They are a graphical representation of current price action and sentiment, and can give clues as to where sentiment may change to give you good entry and exit points.
Fundamental analysis is also very useful, but you can do the best, most detailed and accurate fundamental analysis of a share to determine what you think the fair value should be, but until the people buying and selling have done the same analysis and come to the same conclusion, then there's going to be a mis match between fair value and current price. Sometimes the two things even out and meet, but that can take years, and if the fundamentals change then the share price may never get to your assessment of fair value.
I like to use a combination of both as it can be very dangerous to get too closely fixated on one in isolation.
meshtrader
you do whatever fits you best .... and take anything and everything whatever way you perceive it to be ..like the media
do the DD necessary to make any decision
good luck
Sure, but the ratio of the put/call option is what matters regardless of time frame. As an example, you load up on calls with shorter maturity and may or not load up on either calls/puts on a longer dated option. Regardless of these various combinations, the ratio will provide you with the insight.
If the stock is being weighed down by more puts, then it will be visible on the rate of change (derivative) of the put/call chart.
Also, the options markets is a great vehicle to deceive the actual intent.
The bottom line is to long or short a stock the way you see the company perform not what others do. FTX is the latest great example of it. All the "smart" money wanted in on it.
I look at the range of Options ..whether they are more near term or more long dated ....that gives you a better understanding of long a time period Options will stay for and how serious the traders see a problem (for Puts ) or clear skies for Calls ..... look at the US Options for VOD and the European Options too ....
look at 9th and 15th November put/call ratio peaks .... traders placing the Puts for the monthly December expire of the 17th (close 16th) ??.. will some close depending on what the FED says next week ??
Poker, what do you see, statistically, that is not visible here? Your claim of the option market driving this doesn't seem to be supported based on this chart: https://www.alphaquery.com/stock/VOD/volatility-option-statistics/150-day/put-call-ratio-volume
Feel free to share other sources.