Member Info for Colbee

Invstrat - ¨Wonder if the phantom ‘authority’ realised that the shares would not be cancelled (to bolster our SP) ?¨

You could just read the notes to the resolution at the AGM (number 23). Directors intend to hold sufficient shares in Treasury to meet company requirements and will cancel any bought back that aren't needed for that. I realise that doesn't set out precisely what will actually happen, and like you I'm not supportive of large handouts to directors, but BP will need shares for employee reward schemes. And BP has cancelled a shedload of shares in recent years.

Savage: "Share buybacks for public companies are subject to the 10/12 limit, which means that a company can buy back up to 10% of its outstanding voting shares within any 12-month period."

That can't be the reason for the weirdly small numbers, as VOD has shareholder approval to buyback over 4 billion shares. That sets the limit higher than the 10/12 rule. Looking at shares in issue a year ago, they've only bought about half that, so they'd be OK under either rule.

I'm baffled why they aren't buying more. ¨They¨ here might be Citi rather than VOD? But what would be the advantage to Citi in waiting to spend?

The small buybacks are odd, my reckoning is that the budget would allow 11m or so a day. The ex div date is neutral for VOD, so waiting till after that doesn't seem relevant either. Remove some buying support and hope the price drops?

Am I the only person who thinks it's cringey for a UK-based company, and with a Canadian CEO, to be referring in its results to the ¨Gulf of America¨ disaster ?

Results are 7 am GMT tomorrow, according to the BP website.

LTI

Also, VOD have substantially reduced the div. I inherited some shares about 12 years ago and despite reinvesting most of the divs over the years (yes, I know !) this month's div will be the lowest total in pounds and pence I've ever received. That impacts the share price, and helps buyback more shares. The markets realise VOD won't increase the div any time soon, even to reflect the savings in divs from the buybacks. As you say, it's a long term play.

Well spotted, ValueS, that the current buyback programme had completed.

It's not clear if the current buyback programmme is ended, Bidnolid. It's due to end no later than Monday coming. There will certainly be another one to follow, maybe others too. With the lower divi and the buybacks already completed, VOD must be saving a bit of dosh.

Maybe worth remembering that the employee share distribution was offset by a separate share buyback and cancellation, announced back on 30 July.

Two points about the huge Treasury share transfer today. First, they've gone to employees, not directors. Second, they won't all have been given out for nothing, the schemes include purchase options. Encouraging employees to have a stake in the business is surely a good thing.

Thanks, again, ValueS. That RNS is odd, and a few nearby actually don't match up arithmetically the other way - the buy back hasn't fully reduced shares in issue. Maybe grants to employees under share schemes? I still don't see why purchases outside London would not be included in the RNS. Could this just be time lags in moving shares to Treasury, then a catch up? But the last few days confirm that the repurchases recently have been much less, at least going by the reported figures and checking the daily arithmetic. Why do they fluctuate so much, or more precisely, why is the broker choosing to slow the purchases (at least as per those immediately sold on to VOD).

Thanks, ValueS, but are you sure? My reading of the RNS is that it's reporting the shares that Vodafone acquired from the broker, under the deal, not those bought only in London. There's been no reporting of other purchases.

I see the buybacks have been low volumes the last few days. What do folk make of that? I'm guessing the brokers aren't expecting the price to rise anytime soon and think it's as well to wait. I'm also guessing they have no inside knowledge, it just reflects their own view, otherwise there would be insider trading issues. They'll be studying the figures, but could be wrong - here's hoping so. Any views?

Garonne, you say Margnerita ain't buying. You must have missed that she bought over 320K shares a couple of weeks ago, along with some other large purchases by directors. They haven't done anything for the share price yet, unfortunately. I suppose one positive is that the buybacks will be bigger, which might eventually be beneficial if there's further cancellation of the shares purchased,

That's the first two entries, Kev. Scroll down for the purchases.

Some large purchases by directors have been announced today. Maybe this is an attempt to persuade the markets that the stock is undervalued. Which in my opinion it is. Certainly they're showing they have confidence in their strategy.

Jeez, I thought my long-term average of £1.60 was bad. The worst purchase for me was at just over £2.40 a share. At least I got the Verizon payout.

At these prices a share buyback looks a better idea than paying down debt - VOD's long-term debt servicing costs are surely much lower than the cost of the current dividend. Even with a significant cut in the dividend, a buyback might be cost-effective and it would still give a shareholder return.

Yep, Brexiteers were good at talking this sort of ill-informed (and simply incorrect) stuff.

Demotion to FTSE 250 would only occur if the share price dropped by 80%, to a market cap of around 4 billion. Vodafone has been a dog of a share (I've be in for years), but it ain't dropping out the FTSE 100 any time soon.