Member Info for fleccy

"Now 8 years later I have a sizeable holding and my breakeven price is £ 140.00"

I know you mean £1.40, £140 per share would give me Vodafone holding of around £11.2 Million, if only lol.

"As long as it doesn't head back into the 110-120p range we are ok given the dividend. Treat VOD like a bond I suppose."

110-120p would be better, in view of the share buybacks to cover MCB's. The price will eventually find the right level, in my opinion. in the meantime I'm in no rush to see a capital return on my investment.

Here's a summary of the deal, from a previous article:

"BT Sport and Eurosport UK to be brought together to form a premium sports joint venture for customers in the UK & Ireland which will be owned 50:50 by BT plc and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Warner Bros. Discovery and BT plc will each directly contribute, sub-license or deliver the benefit of their respective sports rights and distribution agreements for the UK & Ireland to the JV.
The Transaction will deliver operational efficiencies through the transfer of the operating businesses of BT Sport to Warner Bros. Discovery.
BT plc will receive £93m from Warner Bros. Discovery and up to approximately £540m by way of an earn-out from the JV, subject to certain conditions being met.
BT plc will retain a 50% interest in the JV, and Warner Bros. Discovery will be granted a Call Option over BT plc’s interest in the JV, exercisable at specified points in the first four years of the JV.
The Transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including approvals by the relevant regulatory bodies and is expected to complete by the end of 2022."

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-group-and-warner-bros-discovery-agree-to-form-new-premium-sports-joint-venture-for-the-uk-and-ireland/

"I for one am VERY skeptical of pouring a crap load of money into more football bullsh it (which is where a lions share of any money invested will go i'm sure) when the physical infrastructure is in need of or mid way through massive upgrades"

From what you've written, you missunderstand what's happening. This is the initial stage of BT moving out of sport content delivery, not a move to enter it. It means that BT's payments for Football rights, etc, will reduce to zero over time.

Bad news - share goes down. Good news - share goes down = Manipulation

Strange that BT's share price drops nearly 10%, on nothing more than hearsay, but barely moves up on factual good news.

"The CMA's decision now allows BT and Warner Bros. Discovery to complete the creation of the JV in the coming weeks and for each of their assets to be transferred into the new company. BT Sport and Eurosport UK will be brought together to form a sports joint venture for customers, providing the JV with one of the most extensive portfolios of sports rights in the UK & Ireland. Both BT Sport and Eurosport UK will initially retain their separate brands and product propositions in the market before being brought together under a single brand in the future. "

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/BT.A/cma-approves-bt-sport-and-eurosport-uk-jv-896hm4296fkl252.html

"Thanks to a change in the law coming into force today, businesses can now provide skilled agency workers to fill vital staffing gaps caused by industrial strike action."

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-law-in-place-to-allow-businesses-to-hire-agency-workers-to-plug-staffing-gaps-caused-by-strike-action

I read the same article, and a Motley Fool article from an hour before. These articles tend to focus on the negatives, but conveniently miss the positives. Where was a mention of the projected cost savings of £2.5 Billion per year after 2025? Or the fact, that the latest major network infrastructure upgrades will be the last for generations?
It looks as though Capital.com is a broker, so why are they producing articles? I take anything I read in the Motley Fool, or any other publication, with a pinch of salt, as I view most articles as motivated by vested interest. Everyone, including myself, who writes anything in reference to stocks usually have some vested interest, which is why everyone should do their own reasearch.

https://www.fool.co.uk/2022/07/20/at-180p-is-the-bt-share-price-cheap/

"I’ll take the vodafone share price on google today"

Lloyds, BT, BP, Unilever, and possibly others seeing a similar spike. Gremlins!!!

"I’ve realised there’s little point arguing with anyone who wilfully misunderstands everything, to keep their sense of self trundling along"

You said it's virtually a certainty that VMO2 and Sky/Comcast would partner up on Fibre rollout, I disagree'd with you, who was right as things currently stand?
You probably don't argue with me because my arguments make perfect sense. The latest discussion, before the pension discussion, was around the VMO2 Talk Talk takeover hype, which I said is unlikely to happen; I said that Talk Talk customers couldn't be migrated onto VMO2's network at the drop of a hat, and it's highly doubtful VMO2 could afford to spend £3 Billion to take over Talk Talk anyway; All that would happen, in the event of a take over, is VMO2 would replace Talk Talk as Openreach's customer, and even if it was feasible to migrate all the customers, how much would that cost on top of the £3 Billion purchase price?
If your arguments made sense, I wouldn't disagree with you, but you just seem to talk up VMO2 at BT's expense, without understanding the logistics of what you're saying.

"Fleecy - only an idiot wouldn’t understand that a pension payout forecast would always be based around annuity & that is exactly what you’ve had put in front of you & still you want to argue and argue and misrepresent the facts written down for you to read….
It’s not difficult is it?"

Stop calling me Fleecy Aushole.
No it isn't difficult, but my point is the projections are meaningless anyway, over 25 years, since the projection would be pure fantasy. No one would take up an annuity with that sort of return, so it would be pointless offering it.
If it was me, I'd take the full 25% tax free lump sum of £62,500 in the first year, and invest it in dividend stocks, take £12,500 for 6 years, and then reduce the drawdown payments, from year 7 onwards, to reduce my taxable income accounting for what I'd be receiving in state pension payments, all dependant on my financial circumstances at 67 of course.

"Some pensions annuity are paying very low percentage of pension pot, it’s quite possible £3.5 reflects a projected pot of well over £250,000."

Under those circumstances it would be pointless taking an annuity, and anyone with any sense would put the pension into drawdown. If you're 60, and take £12,500 a year in drawdown payments on a £250,000 pension; The payments would last 20 years, dependent on the yearly performance of the investments, and you wouldn't pay tax at the current rate until you draw your state pension. You could alter the payments to suit your needs, but only an idiot would take out a £3,500 a year annuity on a pot of £250,000.

Apparently Vertical farming uses approximately 784 kWh / Year per metre squared of Romaine Lettuce crop. Other crops, like Strawberries, use more at around 1,405 kWh / Year per Sq M.

Bitcoin consumes an estimated 150 terawatt-hours of electricity annually.

So if they dropped Bitcoin and used the electricity for Vertical farming, they could grow around 192 Km squared of crops per year; Which is a larger area than Brussels with an area of 161 Sq Km.

"Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, currently consumes an estimated 150 terawatt-hours of electricity annually — more than the entire country of Argentina, population 45 million. Producing that energy emits some 65 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually — comparable to the emissions of Greece — making crypto a significant contributor to global air pollution and climate change."

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/05/04/cryptocurrency-energy/#:~:text=Bitcoin%2C%20the%20world's%20largest%20cryptocurrency,of%20Argentina%2C%20population%2045%20million.

Vertical farming is also carbon efficient, since plants convert carbon dioxide while growing.

What's the point of Bitcoin, or Crypto currency? It's slow to transact, super volatile, not even a good substitute for payment apps like Mpesa, used in Kenya. Maybe the money being directed at Crypto should be diverted into vertical farming, at least it would do some good, and the crooks could transact in Lettuces and Strawberries instead.

" 26 year service retiring at 60 gives you a forecast of £3.5 k a year now anyone on here who can eat yep that’s great fair play but it’s looks pretty rubbish to me"

That's meaningless without knowing the pensionable salary, or investment returns over the period. 26 years of service would also mean you started around 1996, wasn't the final salary scheme still in operation then? Gordon Brown didn't hammer the pension schemes until 1997, so you need to supply more information:
Was you talking about the DB, or DC pension scheme?
How much, and over how long were your contributions?

There's no way 26 years of service wilth full contributions, and salary sacrifice, would only pay 3.5k per year, I don't believe that.

"Lucky you!! You do realize the final salary pension was scrapped for new people over 20 years ago and the new one is rubbish"

Most DB pension schemes are frozen for existing members and closed for new members. Gordon Brown hammered the final nails into company DB schemes, by abolising tax relief on sividends within the schemes, when he was Chancellor.

"well get real it does NOT, you play your part and the company will reward you with good pay and conditions, if you disagree then move on, don't bring down the company"

I don't see BT as being in the same situation as the Royal Mail. When the Royal Mail goes on strike, everything stops is my guess; I assume the strike involves sorters, delivery men, etc, etc. If I was looking at sending parcels, I'd likely use a Royal Mail competitor in the week leading up to any strike days, it will cost the Royal Mail big time imo. Another thing, the Government wouldn't need to nationalise the Royal Mail in the event of it going bust, as there are alternative logistics companies who could step in to takeover all their services.
Unlike the Royal Mail, BT's network will tick over while strike action takes place, and there are a small army of contractors authorised to work on the Openreach network. I very much doubt a couple of days strike action will dent BT, as it'll be a bit like Christmas when there's hardly any cover anyway.
For the reasons above, I don't see any comparison between BT and Royal Mail strikes. Just to add, I'm only guessing in respect of the Royal Mail, I'm assuming they don't have adequate backup in the event of strikes, but I could be wrong.

"Gotta talk about something while VOD holders wait to see if debt has to be refinanced at much higher rates. First up is a billion dollars in Sept at a coupon of 2.5%. Probably have to double that coupon."

Why can't they just pay it off?

"The Group maintains substantial cash and cash equivalents which at 31 March 2022 amounted to cash €7.5 billion "

https://investors.vodafone.com/sites/vodafone-ir/files/2022-06/2022-vgplc-form-20-f.pdf

"About 11 billion euro currently on low coupons has to be refinanced by 2025. They don’t seem able to pay them off so will have to roll them into higher coupon debt."

As far as 2025 is concerned, Vodafone are selling tower assets around the World, so I suspect they'll be able to cover debt as it becomes due.

"Looks like CWU manage to get Royal Mail vote for industrial action too."

They're destroying their own jobs. Most of the money's in parcel delivery services these days, since email and online forms do away with the need to send official letters via the post. I've even received electronic Christmas cards.
The parcel delivery industry is fiercly competitive, with Royal Mail's competitors utilising Gig workers for many of their deliveries; I also see many DPD, Yodel, UPS, Hermes and Amazon delivery vehicles these days. The CWU will ruin the Royal Mail, they are just making it easier for the competition who aren't unionised. As far as overnight delivery's are concerned, there are also loads of pickup points, throughout the country, managed by companies like Bybox, as well as the companies I listed above. Royal Mail workers should think about things, as their next job probably wont be at a Unionised company, should they ruin the Royal Mail.

"In all my years I have never seen the workforce like this fleccy I really haven't . I won't go into details to much mate but you know yourself after many years in the industry that this was coming and let's face it they have a right to say enough is enough."

I have no idea what the younger guys are on, and I assume they didn't do too badly from the pay rise, if they're very new. Telecoms is going through a transformation, there aren't going to be nearly as many jobs in the future. The access Network will be OLT/ONT's and the fibre inbetween, so the residential customer facing Field jobs will be reduced to box changing and Fibre splicing. BT will still need Network Transmission (DWDM) and IP trained Engineers, they'll be the more skilled jobs commanding the higher wages within Operations and business facing roles. Convergence will see the end of PSTN/copper, so Engineers in thiose roles will either be retrained, or decide it isn't for them.
I went to the Gym this morning, and on my way I saw vans for Kelly Communications, and MJ Quinn, doing inspections on Openreach cabinets, both vans had signage indicating they are working on behalf of Openreach; I normally see the standard Openreach vans operating in this area, so this was new. I think the younger guys have been encouraged to strike by their older mentors, who have the most to gain, and least to lose from striking.