Member Info for fleccy

Forgot to add the companies house link:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00015454/persons-with-significant-control

Not according to companies house, M&G Group Regulated Entity Holding Company Limited are the owner with:

"1 active person with significant control / 0 active statements

M&G Group Regulated Entity Holding Company Limited ACTIVE
Correspondence address
10 Fenchurch Avenue, London, United Kingdom, EC3M 5AG Notified on 23 July 2020"

Also:
https://www.mandg.com/pru/customer/en-gb/about/group-companies-names-and-registration

I noticed Fibrus have been winning a few big Government BDUK Gigabit contracts, like the recent £108 million one for Cumbria. Thought I'd take a quick look at the ownership.
It appears it's owned by M&G PLC, the parent company of Prudential.

"Mole-man has been warning us about that for a long time to be fair to him"

I don't see it as a problem as such, I just think it's strange. They're looking at paying off $2.4 Billion with an interest rate of 4.375% but taking on £600,000,000 debt at over 5%. All I can think is that it's a short-term liquidity gap filler, the early redemption amount seems to be the same as the Final redemption amount, so if I'm understanding it correctly there's no penalty for early redemption.

"fleccy - Where is this information available please?"

If you want to look at the full document, here it is:

https://investors.vodafone.com/sites/vodafone-ir/files/2022-11/Final%20Terms%20-%20VGPlc%202052.pdf

"that rns sorts rolls over a lot out to 2052. Onwards and upwards for a while now"

"5.125 per cent. per annum payable in arrear on each Interest Payment Date"

I'm not sure taking on debt at 5.125% per annum is a positive. That's £30,750,000 a year in interest.

"I just had a wee look and all he has said is that Vod is not going up as the FTSE rises but will more than likely go down when the FTSE falls. What exactly has he said that is incorrect? " In his opinion

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but the disclaimer, "Please remember that past performance may not be indicative of future results", works both ways. Just because Vodafone, and Telecom stocks in general, have been locked into a downtrend doesn't mean that'll persist forever. Common sense suggests that the lower a safe stock drops, the more resistance to further price declines. Since no one's saying Vodafone's at risk of going bust, there must be a finite price per share in the absence of bad news, does GutterSnipe have insider knowledge backing up his opinion that Vodafone will continually drop ad ininitum?

As per the "buy more" when it falls, averaging down continuously is gambling" In your opinion

Not necessarily, averaging down is a well known and used investment strategy. Obviously investing in a company spiraling into bankruptcy, is gambling on a meme stock type event, as happened with Gamestop, but averaging down in a stock you confidently believe is undervalued isn't, in my opinion.

"Im just looking forward to the Jan pay hike , followed by the Sept pay hike. Kerching"

So how much are you earning after 25 Christmas's? I'll tell you what I was on in my final year, and we can compare the difference the union has made for you personally. When I started at the Mercury in 1988, I was on £9,300 per annum with a yearly £500 meal allowance.

"Neah - that's gambling! And reminds of"

Some say all forms of investing are gambling, with many giving it the title of "Posh Bingo". Many refer to buying more, as the price drops, as averaging down. If you're sure of the company you're buying stock in. as it drops, is that a gamble in the same sense as day trading? I would say it isn't.

"And by the way Mr I'm alright Jack , I've been with BT since 1998 , you wouldn't have lasted 6 months with your poor attitude ,"

Every time you post you throw insults around like confetti, probably to disguise your shallow thinking and inability to see the true picture. What people like you fail to understand, is that massive pay rises, due to short term inflationary pressure, actually feeds more inflation and hurts society in the long term.
It was strikers that destroyed industries, in this country, in the 1970's/80's, look at the miners strikes and where the industry is now; Scargill was likely responsible for hammering the nails into the industry coffin. You say I have the attitude of "I'm alright Jack", but I take the opposing view and say that strikers winning big pay rises earn that label. Let's imagine the whole country comes out on strike and all the companies buckle, handing out average pay rises of over 10%+, so companies up their prices to maintain profit margins and then a year later it all kicks off again leading to an inflationary pay spiral.
Most people on private pensions are locked at 5% maximum per year increases, so 5 years of over 10% pay rises for people in work, meaning they earn over 50% from the starting point 5 years before, leads to pensioners suffering an unfixable cost of living squeeze. Pensioners can't go on strike and since the most they can get is 5% a year increases, if they're very, very, very lucky, their inflation rate will be much higher than yours. If you think I'm talking rubbish, you haven't been around long enough to see this scenario play out in the 1980's/90's and early 2000's.
So, who's Alright Jack?
Ever wonder why industry has left this country, just look in the mirror. Manufacturers don't have to build in the UK, so high pay rises eventually drives industry away due to the high cost of labour.

"Not all of us are not shallow gutless fools lie yourself NigeCo"

Phat, you're obviously a very special type of fool, possibly borderline lunatic. I'm not even convinced you're an Engineer at BT, as when I asked you what you do, all that came back was "BT engineer (New Grid)", which says nothing about your skillset or day to day work. Since the strike appears to be over, and your username is obviously ****phones of fat cats out, implying you only posted due to the industrial action, is there any reason for you to hang around?

"the hope is that this will get back to the high 130s not expecting this until sometime in the next year and of course there is a chance it will turn out to be a mistake only time will tell"

UK stocks have been battered for years, but the tide will turn at some point. Recently, I've noticed the CNBC presenters and guests discussing the value in UK stocks, so something will likely give in the next 12 months, no situation lasts forever, In the meantime, I'll keep topping up and waiting.

"It’s not just global investors who are shunning the UK
Ever since Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, overseas investors and fund managers have had a downer on the UK.
It’s understandable. Politics is complicated enough for insiders. Outsiders don’t stand a chance. Most of the time that doesn’t really matter. Domestic politics doesn’t make big enough waves to force global investors to pay attention. Companies carry on regardless. "

https://moneyweek.com/investments/stockmarkets/uk-stockmarkets/602060/investors-are-shunning-uk-stocks-but-they-might

"The UK stock market is cheap and looks as interesting as in 2008"

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investingshow/article-11426727/UK-shares-cheap-2008-says-Temple-Bar-manager-Investing-Show.html

I agree with your general sentiment Mesh. As far as the Spectrum auctions are concerned, there's no doubt Governments use them as a cash cow, but the Telecom companies have no choice but to go along, since spectrum is a finite resource and needs to be managed across different applications.
I believe manipulation occurs across the drug industry too, was the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine trashed because it was offered at cost? And the market players wanted to make big profits from the more expensive MRNA vaccines? Since it would be the taxpayers, in the richer countries, who'd pay the price for the more expensive vaccines; It's funny that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been used throughout the third World without issue.

https://theconversation.com/what-happened-to-the-astrazeneca-vaccine-now-rare-in-rich-countries-its-still-saving-lives-around-the-world-181791

There have been issues with the MRNA vaccines too, but they seem to have received less mainstream coverage.

https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/myocarditis-warnings-strengthened-after-death-link

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/death-covid-pfizer-vaccine-mother-b2072988.html

The oil and Gas industry is manipulated, I mean how many industries allow a Cartel like OPEC? But irrespective of OPEC, market players hoard Oil in tankers and play other games with the prices. The US Government has fought back Oil price increases by releasing reserves. The market appears to have the ability to manipulate any commodity, whatever it is, like Nickel back in March:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/29/lme-had-regulatory-obligation-to-be-able-to-cancel-nickel-trades-in-march-filings-say.html

We've all heard about Libor and other scandals. Crypto currency is just smoke and mirrors, in my opinion, with no intrinsic value and no real-World uses, except for the criminals. In truth, the whole market is rigged from top to bottom.

"Correct when you look at the markets as a whole and then see company's like this slowly going one way its clear what the markets think. Confidence is gone and something needs to happen for this to be restored."

The market's negative treatment of the Telecom sector is unwarranted in my opinion, and as I've said previously it's contradicted by the amount of private equity ploughed into mast infrastructure and FTTP. I think many big market players have intentionally pushed down Telecom sector stocks, as an attempt to weaken and test their balance sheets; With some companies, it appears to be paying off, like Telecom Italia looking at merging its fixed line business with Open Fiber, or Vodafone spinning off Vantage and selling half to private equity. In Vodafone's case, they appear to be moving more toward partnerships, in many of their operating markets anyway, like the attempt for a 3/Vodafone merger in the UK, or VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands. Since it appears the market is playing a long game with Telecom stocks, the best thing Telecom companies can do is move forward with their business plans and ignore the market games.

"Well the ftse is in positive territory nicely this morning - I think the Vodafone share price yet again shows what the markets think ."

You should look at the sector movement as a whole, not the index, before you pass judgement on an individual stock movement within a sector.

"I am your worst enemy fleshy , i am a rep and a BT engineer (New Grid)"
"We got rid of your lot years ago Fleshy
Good riddance to bad rubbish"

I'd say, judging by your unbalanced rhetoric, you've got some serious psychological issues. My guess is if you're not already on some medication, you will be at some point in the future.
If you were looking for some sort of reaction to your weak attempts to wind me up, here it is:

LMFAO

"Why you are so obsessed with BT , when I doubt they would have ever employed the likes of you . You would have not have fitted in to the culture , with your know it all , I'm alright jack attitude.
I bet when they paid you off with your years redundancy money , they thought it was bargain of the century"

Actually, I joined Mercury/C&W after leaving the Army in 1988 and worked as a Network and Customer facing Maintenance Engineer for over 20 years; I then spent the last 10 years working in Submarine Cable and Network Operations, finishing my career in late 2019, seeing my final years out working for Vodafone after they took over C&WW around 2012. I was made redundant because they wanted me to move 100 miles to a new location, so I decided to take redundancy instead.
The reason I talk about BT, is because I hold a lot of shares in the company, but I had no interest in working for BT as the limited range of equipment, within the job descriptions, would have bored the A55 off me. I have a lot of respect for BT Engineer skills, in their respective roles and met a lot over the years, but we used to work on Microwave Radio, DWDM, ISDN protocol analysis of DASS2/Q931 30 channel, Cisco, RCU's and every other bespoke Equipment provided on the Network and to customers, whereas BT Engineering roles seemed a lot narrower. I would say I've worked on virtually every type of Telecom Equipment during my career, so I have a pretty good idea what it's about.
What about you Phatkatzout, are you in technical role or are you just on here as a Union representative?

"I would suspect that to accelerate the lowering of the head count BT may well offer some good packages for staff to leave. As has happened in the past"

They shouldn't get more than the standard 1 year redundancy package, that's all I received when I was made redundant at 58. I got 4 weeks per year for time served, up to a maximum of 10 years, with 3 months' notice payment, totaling 52 weeks redundancy payout. Of course, I didn't work for BT, but my guess is anyone pushing 60 would want to leave anyway, rather than retrain.

"From Handman "The CWU stands up for its members and never backs down; something we can all admire""

I have to say, BT didn't need to award this extra pay rise. I suspect the CWU will be expected to toe the line, as the inevitable job cull accelerates approaching the end of 2025, a goodwill bribe maybe. A large number of legacy equipment will go, along with the Engineers who look after them.

"As part of the conversations with BT we have agreed to renew and strengthen the way we work together. This will be important as the company seeks to deliver its commitment to reduce cost and improve efficiency by the end of FY25 and will give us the opportunity to influence any potential impact on CWU members."

Code for, there's a lot of jobs disappearing.

"Here’s a sobering read fellow Voders"

This article is just one of many presenting a negative narrative around Vodafone and BT. As I've pointed out previously, the current round of Capex isn't going to be forever; Once 5G and FTTP are completed, I don't see any massive infrastructure expenditure for decades.
Just to clarify a few points, 6G isn't a full infrastructure replacement for 5G, it's a complement to 5G and will utilise 5G frequencies, in most cases, to offer new 6G applications. 5G/6G, using EHF in the 30 to 300Ghz range, are severely affected by atmospherics and obstructions as the frequency increases, and will only be useful for very small distances with a clear line of sight, probably shopping centers, stadiums, possibly the high street with enough cell coverage.
LEO's like Starlink, are affected by same issues limiting 5G/6G transmission, as the Frequency rises up the SHF/EHF scale. LEO's will never be a replacement for terrestrial systems and will only be useful in providing service for rural, ship and Aircraft. LEO's won't replace everything else, as some of the hype implies.
The winners will be the providers who can provide the best FTTP, 5G and metro WiFi service coverage i.e., the ones with the largest scale.
By 2030, most of the infrastructure will be completed and Telecom company capex will drop massively. Since the market is supposed to be forward looking, I expect the narrative will change well before then.