Member Info for fleccy

Sky are due to make an announcement on Thursday, speculation is that it will be about their new IPTV streaming service. If they ditch the dish and move to an online subscription model, they wont need any Fibre infrastructure.

https://www.whathifi.com/news/sky-is-up-to-something-magical

To add to my last post, as of Q1 2021/22 Net Debt came in at £18.566 Billion.

"Net financial debt (which excludes lease liabilities) at 30 June 2021 was £12.5bn £0.8bn higher than at 31 March 2021 (£11.7bn), with net capital expenditure (after spectrum refund), pension contributions, net interest payments, payment of lease liabilities, share purchases and the acquisition of BT OnePhone Limited, more than offsetting net cash inflow from operating activities. Net debt including lease liabilities was £18.6bn at 30 June 2021, £0.8bn higher than at 31 March 2021 (£17.8bn). "

On the question of Debt, from the horses mouth, from the 2021 annual report:

"Net financial debtª (which excludes lease liabilities) at 31 March
2021 was £11.7bn, £0.3bn higher than at 31 March 2020, with net
capital expenditure, net interest payments and payment of lease
liabilities offsetting net cash inflow from operating activities and
net proceeds from disposal of subsidiaries.
Net debta
(which includes lease liabilities) was £17.8bn at 31
March 2021, £0.2bn lower than at 31 March 2020 (£18.0bn).
The difference to the movement in net financial debt primarily
reflects the lease payments.
At 31 March 2021 the group held cash and current investment
balances of £4.7bn. The current portion of loans and other
borrowings of £0.9bn includes no term debt repayable during
2021/22. Our £2.1bn facility, which matures in March 2026,
remains undrawn at 31 March 2021.
Gross debt translated at swap rates and excluding accrued
interest and fair value adjustments was £22.5bn at 31 March
2021. This comprises term debt of £15.4bn, lease liabilities of
£6.2bn and other loans of £0.9bn."

"fleccy please clarify "today's drop was in the script" who's script and for what benefit?"

I have no idea, my wording was, "One could be forgiven for thinking that today's drop was in the script". I chose my words carefully.

How the Equinox deal comes into operation, and the Telegraph immediately resurrects the SKY/VMO2 speculation, immediately followed by a significant drop in BT's share price. One could be forgiven for thinking that today's drop was in the script.

"but we have 40 billion in debt and that is a huge amount,"

Oracle, can you explain where the £40 Billion figure comes from?

"Not sure why RYA gets mentioned on here"

I don't know, why you've posted about RYA? Since RYA hasn't been mentioned for at least the last 100 posts on here.

"So I’ll sit back again and watch from side lines till already court case out off the way"

I suspect you'll be waiting a long time, since class action lawsuits can last for years with appeals.

"IMO the biggest strategic mistake by many UK funds is their lack of commitment to their own native eco system(UK)."

Totally agree, but I was referring to investors like you and me who invest directly, rather than investment through funds.

Vodafone currently sitting around 111p, Lloyds back down to 44.87. UK stocks popular with retail investors are getting hammered. BT stock may be in the midst of a shakeout, but it isn't the only one. The big players game the psychology of investors; Many who invested, thinking an end in sight to the Pandemic would see stock prices normalise, will have their confidence shaken. Personally I've glued myself to my investments, or holding with Diamond hands, or any other metaphor for holding through thick and thin. They just mentioned BT on CNBC, with the presenter saying he didn't see any obvious reason for BT's drop today; Finishing by saying, no doubt something will come out in the news later.

In the absence of any other news, the current 7.5% drop seems overdone. Not sure why one article in the Telegraph, regurgitating old news, should have such a large impact on the price.

"Added at 148p"

Good purchase in my opinion.

Looks as though the shakeout article hit the mark, as expected.

"They are a poorly run company with too much debt"

They must be doing something right, they started out as a small mobile provider based in Newbury.
"As of 30 June 2020, Vodafone Group had approximately 300+ million mobile customers, 27 million fixed broadband customers and 22 million TV customers, including all of the customers in Vodafone's joint ventures and associates."

This is from February 2020.

https://www.capacitymedia.com/articles/3824855/sky-and-virgin-media-further-ftth-talks

There are also articles talking about this in 2019.

https://telecoms.com/499442/sky-and-liberty-global-allegedly-in-talks-for-full-fibre-investment/

It's now October 2021 lol

Yeap, I've seen the articles about SKY moving to a streaming model. It isn't surprising since satellite tv would be more expensive to offer.
The article mentions "Infraview capital", but it should say Infravia Capita; Typo's in the Telegraph, what's the world coming too.

https://infraviacapital.com/liberty-global-ventures-and-infravia-capital-partners-set-up-fibre-to-the-home-joint-venture-in-germany/

Liberty Global have only recently sold their German Operations to Vodafone, so what's going on there? I have no idea what sort of Cable Tv network Liberty had built in Germany, but as I've said previously I don't see a long term future for Docsis, which is why VMO2 are moving to an FTTP MODEL.
Since the article couldn't get Infravia's name right, I think i'll wait until I see further proof off the speculation in the article.

I read the article, but this has been speculated before. It will likely impact the share price, as articles like these often do. If true, and happens, SKY would become a direct competitor of Openreach, and BT could argue with Ofcom about the level of regulation impacting its business in light of the competition. The fact it's in the Telegraph suggests some truth, but why would Sky invest with VM instead of BT? When SKY are so heavily reliant on Openreach? I can't imagine this has anything to do with the DAZN speculation, but the timing is suspicious.
In such an event, BT would have to look at content partners to counter SKY's dominance in that sector.

"So £14b has been brought in"

I suspect they're referring to commitments from investment backers, rather than capital already invested; I also think that one of their arguments is that the money may not be forthcoming, if said backers don't envisage a certain return on their investment. There are a couple of ways to look at this from different perspectives.
BT plays a significant role in UK society, lots of UK retail investors are locked in through price declines, which is relevant since people like me have complained to Ofcom and my MP about BT's regulatory treatment; There's the pension fund, currently spanning the whole of BT Group including Openreach, which needs sorting; And the fact that BT is one of the few remaining Legacy British companies remaining, so politically sensitive if it's driven into oblivion.
The Altnets are mainly funded from foreign investment and they may increase competition, but their sole aim is make profits for their international backers.
My personal view, is that the Government and by extension Ofcom, don't want lots of assorted foreign owned entities supplying communications all over the UK, on the grounds of National Security amongst other things. It's my view, and has been for a long time, that the Government want Openreach to manage the network for all ISP providers, including BT, using the current ISP model. In my opinion, the plan is for BTPS to eventually transfer to the pension trustees under an insurance buyout scenario; Once the pension is offloaded Openreach will likely fully separate from BT, with BT Group becoming another ISP using Openreach, and Openreach no longer showing in BT's accounts. The payoff for investors will be either shares in both companies, or a substantial payout to BT from a sale. This is all speculative, but it's what I believe will happen based on various events, and the direction of travel.

"Ofcom’s decision is in direct contradiction to its stated policy of promoting competitive investment and maintaining that regulatory certainty."

https://www.inca.coop/news/response-to-ofcom-equinox-statement

"Remember, folks, share buyback doesn't add value immediately."

These particular share buybacks are related to conversions of Mandatory Convertible Bonds. Vodafone are taking advantage of the current low share price, to buy shares now and avoid dilution on conversion. The current low share price is a gift to Vodafone and long term investors. Since the MCB's were issued at a higher issue price than the current price, the buybacks mean that Vodafone made the right decision to use MCB's to borrow.