ESG Telegraph
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Environment
  • Companies
  • Investors
  • Governance
  • Markets
  • Social
  • Regulators
  • Sustainable Finance
Featured Posts
    • Markets
    Meme and thematic ETFs surge as inflation fears dip
    • August 15, 2022
    • Latest News
    Thungela to pay bumper dividend as coal price soars
    • August 15, 2022
    • Companies
    European office market faces biggest test since financial crisis
    • August 15, 2022
    • Markets
    Uniper drops coal case as tensions rise over treaty on fossil fuel projects
    • August 15, 2022
    • Latest News
    Stock markets subdued after weaker than expected Chinese data
    • August 15, 2022
Featured Categories
Belarussia
View Posts
Companies
View Posts
Energy
View Posts
Environment
View Posts
Food
View Posts
Governance
View Posts
Health
View Posts
Investors
View Posts
Latest News
View Posts
Markets
View Posts
Potash
View Posts
Regulators
View Posts
Russsia
View Posts
Social
View Posts
Supply Chain
View Posts
Sustainable Finance
View Posts
Technology
View Posts
Uncategorized
View Posts
ESG Telegraph ESG Telegraph
7K
9K
4K
1K
ESG Telegraph ESG Telegraph
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Environment
  • Companies
  • Investors
  • Governance
  • Markets
  • Social
  • Regulators
  • Sustainable Finance
  • Companies

Vodafone chief says turnround push happening despite activist

  • February 2, 2022
  • Staff
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

The head of Vodafone has hit back against suggestions that the telecom group’s strategy over the past year had been shaped by activist investor Cevian Capital, which has built a stake in the company with the aim of shaking up the business and improving lacklustre shareholder returns.

Chief executive Nick Read said that looking for new ways to monetise the FTSE 100 company’s towers business and consolidate in less promising markets were “long-term themes”, indicating that they predated the arrival of Europe’s biggest activist investor, which has built an undisclosed stake in Vodafone.

He added that spinning out the Vantage Towers masts business, a move that was completed last year, was one of the first opportunities he looked at when he took over as chief executive in 2018. “We made an early call as a management team there. No other operator was talking about that execution,” he said on Wednesday.

Cevian has spent several months engaging with Vodafone’s board and management pushing it to focus on markets where it is performing well and dispose of assets that were not, according to people briefed on the discussions. It has not disclosed when it began building its stake.

The activist particularly underscored the importance of consolidating in some of the more complex and poor performing telecoms markets, including Spain, Italy and the UK, and of realising the value of Vantage Towers, that went public last year.

“We’ve talked about in-market consolidation for years, and the important moment was Covid in terms of setting a different dialogue with policymakers,” Read said, adding that the most attractive places for deals are Spain, Italy, the UK and Portugal.

He added that the company’s preferred next steps for the Vantage Towers business was to pursue an industrial merger with Germany’s Deutsche Telekom or France’s Orange to create a “European champion”.

Vodafone said it is on track to meet its full year profit targets, as it reported strong growth in its European and African market with a 3.7 per cent rise in revenue in the three months to December. Organic service revenue, the money it makes from customers, rose 2.7 per cent to €9.6bn.

In Germany, the company’s most important market, it posted revenue growth of only 1.1 per cent, due to lower revenue from variable call usage, lower retail activity because of the pandemic and the impact of new telecommunications regulations.

The company’s growth was affected last year by a fall in revenue from customer roaming. Total revenue increased 3.7 per cent quarter on quarter.

Shares in Vodafone have gained more than 14 per cent since the beginning of the year and were up 3 per cent in early trading on Wednesday morning.

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
You May Also Like
Read More
  • Companies

European office market faces biggest test since financial crisis

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Vanguard active funds suffer bloodiest first-half on record

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Digital advertising: Apple takes bigger bite of new business

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Climate and crypto fraught with challenges for regulators 

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

FirstFT: European office market’s big test

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

How female founders are challenging the funding gap

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

UK employers could be forced to pay down pension deficits

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Afghan roads once menaced by the Taliban are now safer. . . for some

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured Posts
  • 1
    Meme and thematic ETFs surge as inflation fears dip
    • August 15, 2022
  • 2
    Thungela to pay bumper dividend as coal price soars
    • August 15, 2022
  • 3
    European office market faces biggest test since financial crisis
    • August 15, 2022
  • 4
    Uniper drops coal case as tensions rise over treaty on fossil fuel projects
    • August 15, 2022
  • 5
    Stock markets subdued after weaker than expected Chinese data
    • August 15, 2022
Recent Posts
  • Vanguard active funds suffer bloodiest first-half on record
    • August 15, 2022
  • Why the Fed might be at ‘neutral’ already on monetary policy
    • August 15, 2022
  • Rio Tinto rebuffed in plan to take control of Mongolia copper project
    • August 15, 2022

Sign Up for Our Newsletters

Subscribe now to our newsletter

ESG Telegraph
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Guest Post
  • Contact

Input your search keywords and press Enter.