Member Info for bigpunt

I have to disagree with NickE that acquisition activity is dependent on the performance of "lawyers". 90% of the activity (and bottlenecks) in an acquisition process is driven by the accountants, and we know we have a below par FD that can't even account properly for stock

In relation to strategy, my guess is that an acquisition target is a distributor that supplies all major outlets i.e. vertical integration. I would actually be delighted if they found a small company with very little profit that has a great customer list which we can immediately sell through pending Croda results. Try not to get carried away with the word "material" in respect of tiny revenues and huge losses, as it usually refers to single-digit percentage changes

I'm sure this has been done before but why can't more than one "product" be ordered at once? I have never ordered one set of contact lenses because if I buy a few packs I save on the shipping. Will I be sent a batch with 6 weeks of shelf life?

I don't think it can be argued that this can detract potential customers from purchasing. Another growth blocker

Couple of notes from the HY:

Did anyone pick up on slide 19 which spoke about debt sales from the credit card business? Why on earth would a credit card business sell their debt?

£4.4m was written off the vehicle finance loan book at 30/6/23 due to fraud. That's quite a substantial chunk of a £360m book balance

£2.0m redundancy provision (note 12) for outsourcing to third parties in South Africa. What is being outsourced to a country with load shedding?! This doesn't really sound like an initiative to enhance scalability to me

Provi I wouldn't be alarmed if the issued shares haven't all been sold. Let's face it, the CEO probably hasn't met all of the II's and we are in holiday season. I haven't checked the resolutions but perhaps they just issued the max number of shares to not require a vote. The price will hold until the broker shifts the shares - they wont be sold with a wide spread. What happens after that, the market will decide

Very good point Provi re ex-div. Treasury department must be a little lacking in foresight

Pon, don't forget the old adage that poor people surround themselves with poor people to look decent, which may have been the case for the departed CFO. Perhaps there was an element of a Chinese wall between finance and risk, and the CEO has deduced that this is the best route to cut through what may be an awful culture with similarly poor people. Forget the Board, you'd think this calibre of CEO will be able to make an excellent appointment at short order.

What awful timing though, immediately post acquisition.

Clearly the new CEO thinks not a jot of the outgoing CFO. I assume this follows a review of the corporate centre which has been significantly expanded at no sparing expense. Positive news but the reorganisation will take time to deliver any impact

We appear to have bottomed out around 180p, I thought it may be a tad lower. It's a steal with a mkt cap of around £450m, subject to operating cash flow. Others here like to see lending and growth, I prefer to see collections

Jonnn, not sure what much of that means

The debt will be priced according to the asset class, not each asset

The exec should take credit by their hedging arrangements

Why is cashflow a concern in a business selling in cash and able to lean on the supply chain?

They may well be 'selling higher to less customers', but that is like saying Lidl are increasing their prices

I'm really confused by the SP. I genuinely thought we were on an upwards trajectory from 220p. There is no company news so it is purely macro.

I'm delighted to be able to add because I see this being a core holding for 3-5 years whilst this transforms from a fledgling to fully fledged consumer bank. Anyway, I shall wait until it bottoms out, which I assume will be around 160p, before adding another tranche.

Bubs, forget him "moving the share price", but look at achievement of objectives. He's appointed an FD that can't account for stock; he has divorced "logic" from "logistics" by holding stock in completely the wrong place; he has mobilised a marketing team that can barely get a great product to market.

However, we are told his expertise is in negotiating with big players. We have a horse in the most lucrative race, and the prospects have been enhanced. That is why we are here

Gutter, your comparison to TW is entirely arbitrary and without any nuance. TW's biggest risk is working capital. Vodafone does not have that level of risk because a lot of the services are provided under contract and billed and collected at regular intervals. I agree the debt position is large relative to the expected cash inflow for this transformative year, but that is baked in to the share price. Debt costs and repayments are easily met by VOD and therefore I see it as a bargain

Within his provocation is maybe something sensible. Surely the strategy to build a position here (if that is one's desire) is to do it below the placement price of 16p

The results announcement and this webinar are just comms tools to help turn this huge oil tanker.

Clearly there were cults which is why incentives have been restructured. Issues with how IT spent their time hence moving to arms-length with an openness to subcontract. Layers of support functions (perhaps regionally) hence emphasis on 'lean'.

It's a very ambitious task she has on her hands but it is so rare and so refreshing to see such detail given to the market. It perhaps highlights how serious the issues are VOD. There will be good buying opportunities over the coming months whilst lots of change happens within the business

"sales is the true barometer of any balance sheet"

Absolute balderdash

Nice of them to announce the "process" but we know it will end up being MLM

And on your final point (radical action), the CEO has come out with some very dramatic comments, paving the way for a huge restructure. It could have been detrimental and organisationally demotivating to take this level of action without appropriately setting the scene.

Good luck to the management team in what will be a tumultuous and challenging period

Xxx the thing with Vodafone is that there is almost no downside risk! I agree, equities of this size and quality do not usually come around with double-yer-money potential

If a company that is forecasting c.£3bn of cash inflow in a year of significant restructure/transformation/reorganisation is considered an unpleasant sandwich with a market cap of c.£20bn, then I am changing my diet to unpleasant sandwiches

This is heading for £10. For Tim to say top-end of market expectations, that will include generous accruals for further repairs to keep the profit figure down as much as possible. There is still a lot of debt risk priced-in but this will get released in the run up to and post-final results. IMO