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... and just sold them again on the latest rise.

Narcus,
Hope so, having sold and then bought back today already.

Hi Dai,
In layman's terms it's complicated. Vod has huge debts (bonds, some of which are convertible), lots of assets, has decided to pay high dividends, needs to spend huge sums to remain competitive (so needs a reasonable credit rating at least), is subject to competitive and regulatory pressures, don't know what else I have forgotten.
The conversion of convertible bonds into shares has increased the number of shares in Vod, so the buy-back of any shares from the towers will (could) simply bring back the overall number back to where it was before, and Vod is left with lower borrowing (fewer bonds). Mazing what you can do with financial engineering. Obviously as a Vod shareholder you need to keep up with all this :)
The towers have been long planned for and in any case it takes a lot to surprise the market to affect the Vod sp. Stopping the decline in revenues has certainly helped. Mole-man is your man for the detail on this, but I try to be aware and ride the waves of investor sentiment, jumping on and off when it looks to be opportune.
I mean that this is a utility share so it will have a floor value but is too large to be a target for a take-over at a substantial premium. It could however (like it has done in the past) squander shareholder value on take-over of other companies, although probably cannot do that in established like markets/businesses due to competition rules.
Unlike BT, it is a world company and some areas may well provide faster growth opportunities, but these will by definition be small contribution compared to the main market and revenues from Germany. In effect this is a euro company rather than a £ company so the £'s rise recently will mean a lower dividend next time.

Hi Narcus,
So many things you can look at here, and so many ways to calculate value from the towers. So although it is likely that there will be a sell-off later this week, it does not need to be (and probably won't be) based on rational facts and calculations.

[wearing my armchair critic's hat] Vod paid £8.4m more than Telefonica and EE for their 40MHz spectrum, must have really wanted it, but otherwise they secured less additional bandwidth than any of their competitors, so it seems. Hope they won't need it then, eh?

... when I miss a few days, I meant :)

Hi Dan,
You're back :) Surprised about your hangry comments, I might have been a bit wrong about the Towers dividend actually, having understood two articles in different ways. Anyway, keep taking the tablets. I know to my cost what happens when you miss a few days!

Hi Gary I will dispose of most of what I have got left as I need the funds for a property investment. I may well sell all and come back later. It will be a good time to sell as 136p will see me reach my highest historic paper profit, and this time I intend to take it.

Narcus,
As we all know, "buy on the rumour, sell on the news". I am sure the sale will create some waves, when to jump off will be hard to evaluate, but jumping off is definitely my plan.

What made you think it would? A bit of financial engineering should never have fooled anyone.

99p

No.

Strong finish in NY 18.82 equates to 135.36. That equates to around 134.50 in London which usually trades at a discount of 0.75% or thereabouts, not sure why.
There have been many occasions when a strong finish in NY has NOT meant a similar follow-through in London the next day, it's a sign of support but not an indication to start licking your lips at juicy gains to follow.

Not for the first time, a rise in NY has not been followed through in London at the next opening there.

Now THAT sounds sensible. Merlot and Wensleydale, never mind the uptrend :)

Having said that, yes an uptrend is in the air, as not all of the trillions of Covid rescue cash can go on sexy sectors of the stock exchange.

Hi Dan,
Calm down! Calm down! The IPO for the towers states that there would be a dividend of £240m against a valuation of £13bn so not far off 2%. You are welcome to DYOR of course.
When I said the dividend was not enough, I was agreeing with Moley who said (if I understand him correctly) that the high dividend is not enough reason to buy into Vod, you can check by referring to Moley's post if you like. Contrast that with a more sensible dividend of 2% for the towers. A high dividend, shelling out all the profit earned, is only sustainable if expected growth is high, but that is not the case with Vod.
Not sure what I was saying that made you think I was "having a pop at the b.o.d crap".
The high dividend can of course be cured by staying the same and the sp doubling, but that would mean a p/e ratio of 32 not 16, which is way too high for this sector. Anyway, with the current rise in the sp, and the rise in the £ against the euro, the yield is probably closer to 5% now anyway.

Robleo,
"Nobody ON THESE BOARDS has a *** clue about where the Vod sp will be in 6 months" this sentence of yours is still true if you remove the 2nd to 4th word (my capitals)

Hi Moley,
Totally agree with you about the dividend not being enough. Valued at 16 times earnings or so, a 6% div is way too high if there is no significant growth potential. Seen somewhere that the div from the towers will be closer to 2%, says it all really.
Always enjoy reading your posts by the way.

Forf, How do you work that out? I make it 135.55 equivalent

So many happy posters relating their good fortune to us today, just like the rich relatives when they come round!