VOD.L - Vodafone Group Plc
| Previous close | 148.24 |
| Open | 151.00 |
| Bid | 148.10 x 0 |
| Ask | 151.00 x 0 |
| Day's range | 148.06 - 151.00 |
| 52-week range | 1.50 - 178.26 |
| Volume | 48,488,777 |
| Avg. volume | 91,821,977 |
| Market cap | 40.376B |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 1.40 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | N/A |
| EPS (TTM) | -28.20 |
| Earnings date | 12 Nov 2019 |
| Forward dividend & yield | 0.08 (5.39%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 2019-06-06 |
| 1y target est | 2.01 |
- Reuters - UK Focus
Vodacom to invest more than $589 mln on South Africa network this year
South African mobile phone operator Vodacom Group will spend more than 9 billion rand ($589 million) this year on network enhancements particularly in rural areas in its home market, its Chief Technology Officer said on Thursday. Vodacom, majority-owned by Britain's Vodafone, invested 9.6 billion rand in 2018, Andries Delport said during a media briefing. Vodacom has grown its South African rural network coverage significantly over the past six years, covering over 16 million people with 4G/LTE services.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 1-Drillisch shares slump as earnings guidance trimmed, 5G costs loom
Shares in telecoms firm 1&1 Drillisch and its parent United Internet slumped to six-year lows on Thursday after they trimmed profit guidance due to initial 5G network costs and higher line connection charges. Drillisch shares fell 12% while United Internet's slid by 9% even though United announced a share buyback, responding to steep falls over the past year as concerns grew over the cost of building its own network.
- Reuters - UK Focus
BUZZ-1&1 Drillisch, United Internet: Hit 6-yr lows after outlook cut
- Market Realist
Facebook, Ex-Vodafone CEO Find Common Ground in Meesho
Facebook (FB) has joined with Naspers (NPSNY) and former Vodafone (VOD) CEO Arun Sarin to inject $125 million of fresh capital into Meesho.
- Fool.co.uk
Why I’d still buy the Vodafone share price after its 20% rise
Vodafone Group plc (LON:VOD) shares have climbed over 20% from a multi-year low in May, but still have potential to go a lot higher, argues G A Chester.
- Bloomberg
Facebook, Sequoia Bet on Indian Startup in $125 Million Funding Round
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. is participating in a $125 million fundraising for an Indian startup that is aiming to bring more commerce to social networks like, well, Facebook.Meesho, based in Bangalore, is what’s known in the tech industry as a social commerce startup, allowing people to build connections online and then sell through services such as Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram services. The funding round was led by South Africa’s Naspers Ltd. and also included Sequoia, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway and Arun Sarin, the former chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc.Meesho is part of a crop of new e-commerce companies that are trying to take advantage of social connections to facilitate sales. The startup says that it has a network of more than 2 million “social sellers” in 700 towns across India, focusing on categories like apparel, wellness and electronics.“Our social sellers are small retailers, women, students and retired citizens, with 70% being homemakers who have found financial freedom and a business identity without having to step outside their homes,” said Vidit Aatrey, Meesho co-Founder and CEO.India has become an increasingly competitive market for e-commerce, the last unclaimed major country after Amazon.com Inc. took hold of the U.S. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. won China. Amazon is spending billions to gain share in India, while Walmart Inc. paid $16 billion for control of local leader Flipkart Online Service Pvt.Naspers has a history of backing startups in China and India -- and reaping big profits. It invested in China’s gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and India’s Flipkart, before the Walmart purchase. It led a $1 billion funding round in the Bangalore-based online food company Swiggy in December.Naspers shares have risen 23% this year, valuing the company at about $98 billion.\--With assistance from Loni Prinsloo.To contact the reporter on this story: Saritha Rai in Bangalore at srai33@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Power-Hungry Phone Companies Dial Into Surging Green Bond Market
(Bloomberg) -- Phone carriers are huge energy users, and need to cut emissions. They also face massive bills to build out the next generation of wireless networks. Green bonds promise to help them with both.A steady flow of issuance could be building: Orange SA and BT Group Plc are poised to follow Telefonica SA and Verizon Communications Inc. in selling securities designed to fund environmentally friendly projects. The industry has already completed at least $3 billion of sales since January, its first steps into a sustainable debt market that Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates could exceed $370 billion this year.The proceeds can help telecom companies replace power-hungry copper wires with fiber-optic cables, or build the 5G networks that promise to make cities, homes and factories more efficient. There’s plenty of investor appetite for this new take on sustainable investing, but there’s a catch: any hint that a bond doesn’t genuinely help the planet can cause some buyers to flee.“Telecoms have to invest a lot. In the long run, having green bonds in place is going to be very important,’’ said Juuso Rantala, who holds Telefonica’s green bond in the 400 million-euro ($449 million) fund he manages at Aktia Asset Management Ltd. in Finland. “If I find out that I cannot trust the company in the case of green bonds, I cannot trust them in many other ways too. If I cannot trust them, I don’t invest.’’The securities show how green debt is expanding beyond its original universe of the clean energy industry. Beef supplier Marfrig Global Foods SA and Australian retailer Woolworths Group Ltd. have tapped this market to help their operations become more environmentally friendly.For carriers, the task is urgent. The communications industry accounts for about 10% of global electricity demand, and that could exceed 20% by 2030 as demand for data balloons, according to Huawei Technologies Co.Telecom companies have ways to clean up their act. For example, replacing copper with glass wires would use 85% less energy, according to Telefonica. And 5G can enable a range of environmental benefits by allowing smart buildings to monitor heating, connected warehouses to optimize their logistics and power grids to better allocate electricity.But these companies are already staggering under a mountain of debt from, among other things, buying 5G licenses. They’ll need to make sure they can keep their borrowing costs low and tap investors when needed.That’s where green bonds can help: the interest costs are about the same as on these companies’ conventional securities, but they offer the opportunity to access a wider pool of investors.The share of funds focused on socially responsible investing, which includes environmental projects, has risen 34% over the last two years, and now accounts for $30.7 trillion of assets globally, according to the investor group Global Sustainable Investment Alliance.“Many more green telco bonds are likely,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Emmet Kelly wrote in June. “Demand from funds that have incorporated sustainability into their investment framework has been key.’’Telefonica, based in Madrid, is a good example. Demand for the issue, which priced in January, was significant: the company received five times the orders than what was available for sale, and obtained a spread more than the mid-swap rate that was about 25 basis points lower than initial indications.The yield on the 1 billion-euro 5-year security is in line with the rest of its curve, Bloomberg data show, indicating it didn’t have to pay a premium to tap demand for sustainable credit. It’s a similar story for Verizon and Vodafone Group Plc.Orange and BT Group are paying attention -- they have inserted clauses into their Eurobond prospectuses which would let them issue green bonds in the near future. And Deutsche Telekom AG is monitoring the surging market closely, said a spokesman.For investors, the risks go beyond what’s expected for any fixed-income asset. Buyers also have consider just how green these bonds are.“The question is whether or not a bond offers a real energy efficiency gain or overall gain for the environment,’’ said Arnaud-Guilhem Lamy, who holds telecom securities in his 340 million-euro ($381 million) green bond fund at BNP Paribas Asset Management in Paris. “If we think it’s insufficient, we would sell.’’For a start, there’s always the possibility that this new breed of green-bond borrowers divert proceeds to inappropriate purposes, including pooling them into general funds. Though monitoring groups such as credit rating firms can discourage such behavior, it’s something investors need to watch.But 5G presents a particular environmental paradox.Internet-of-things technologies will connect billions more devices and require many more antennas, so 5G will initially use more power than 4G, according to Sustainalytics, an independent corporate sustainability research firm. This complicates the idea that 5G can be a green investment.However, Sustainalytics estimates the energy savings from 5G outweigh the extra emissions to deploy the new tech by a ratio of 5 to 1. The firm’s analysis of the Verizon bond issue, which included 5G deployment among the potential use of proceeds, found that it was a credible candidate for green financing.It’s a good thing, because Verizon plans on returning to this corner of the bond market. It looks like it will be welcome, too – its $1 billion issue of 10-year green debt was eight times oversubscribed within six hours of being offered for sale, said Jim Gowen, head of supply chain and sustainability for the U.S. carrier.“It was far beyond our wildest expectations,” Gowen said. “We are very interested in doing another one.’’\--With assistance from Paul Cohen and Lyubov Pronina.To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Seal in London at tseal@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebecca Penty at rpenty@bloomberg.net, Jennifer RyanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Motley Fool
Why Vodafone Shares Rose 11% in July
The company announced passable first-quarter results and an interesting reorganization.
- Bloomberg
Britain, Show Us Growth, Not Cash
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Reality is beginning to bite in the FTSE 100 as some high-yielding stocks give up on generous dividends. But many British companies are still continuing to offer jaw-dropping payouts when what investors really crave is growth.The dividend culture of the FTSE 100 has long been an oddity. Its investors have received a far higher proportion of their total returns from income over the last two decades than if they had invested in, say, the S&P 500 over the same period.With dividends a very British symbol of corporate confidence, boards are reluctant to cut them even when it might be wise to do so. So the FTSE 100 culture has been self-reinforcing.This year has brought some signs of change. Centrica Plc slashed its payout last week. Analysts had expected the utility to announce a deep cut, but not by nearly 60%. Vodafone Group Plc snipped its dividend in May. And last month, tobacco giant Imperial Brands Plc dropped a commitment to grow its payout 10% annually.Yet even now, these companies’ share prices look superficially cheap on a dividend basis, with yields (the dividend divided by the share price) of between 6% and 10%.Indeed, such ratios are nowadays pretty common in the U.K. The average dividend for the top 15 highest-yielding stocks is worth 9% of the share price. The standard explanation – that this signals dividend cuts in the coming years – doesn’t fit very well. Take analysts’ predictions for dividends in three years; even with some cuts forecast, the average yield for this group is still 9%.This is especially odd in a low-rate environment. Yields on some government bonds and high-rated corporate debt are negative or zero. Surely income investors would buy these dividend stocks if the return provided by their annual cash payouts was only 5% rather than double that level? Wouldn’t that provide sufficient compensation for the added risk?One explanation is simply that international investors just don’t care for yield anymore. Domestic U.K. income funds probably would be willing to pay more for these stocks and bid down their yields. But this group isn’t driving the market. Global investors are. They covet growth and don’t want exposure to the U.K. until there’s clarity about Brexit. The average expected increase in sales over the next two years for the top-15 yielding U.K. blue-chip stocks is under two percent. Of course, if the companies aren’t growing, it’s likely because of past under-investment caused by overly-generous dividends. But cutting dividends now to invest in growth won’t pay off for some time and would only infuriate the small pool of domestic investors who actually like the income. Meanwhile, global investors sit on the sidelines and company managers stand frozen like a deer in the headlights.To contact the author of this story: Chris Hughes at chughes89@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Baker at stebaker@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Chris Hughes is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals. He previously worked for Reuters Breakingviews, as well as the Financial Times and the Independent newspaper.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Fool.co.uk
2 FTSE 100 technology growth stocks I can’t ignore
Recent developments have lit fireworks under the share prices of these two FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE: UKX) stocks, but is it too late to buy in?
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 1-Angry Birds maker Rovio's profit hit by Hatch expansion
Rovio Entertainment, the maker of the 10-year-old Angry Birds mobile game series, reported a drop in quarterly profit on Thursday, citing expansion costs related to its 5G gaming platform Hatch. Rovio said profit was squeezed by Hatch Entertainment, a spin-off business that is developing 5G streaming access to mobile games the way Netflix does for movies and Spotify does for music. Hatch, which is 80% owned by Rovio, signed a partnership agreement with Samsung in April and has announced partnerships with Vodafone in the UK, Spain and Italy.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 2-EU charges Czech mobile operators with blocking rivals
EU antitrust regulators on Wednesday charged Deutsche Telekom's mobile Czech unit, rival O2 Czech Republic and Czech telecoms infrastructure provider Cetin with restricting competition via their network sharing deal. The move by the European Commission could make it more difficult for telecoms operators to do similar deals to share networks, seen as key to saving costs and reducing time in the face of regulatory barriers to mergers. The European Commission said the deal, which the country's two biggest mobile operators and Cetin, then part of O2 CZ, struck in 2011 and subsequently expanded, may breach the bloc's competition rules.
- Market Realist
How 5G Is Powering Nokia’s and Ericsson’s Performances
5G technology is beginning to have a noticeable mark on Nokia's (NOK) and Ericsson's (ERIC) financial results.
- Reuters - UK Focus
LIVE MARKETS-Sell-off, day two: 96% of STOXX in the red
* European stocks sell off again * STOXX 600 -2.3%, FTSE 100 down 2.5% * Miners, autos, chips, luxury stocks top fallers * HSBC ousts CEO after just 18 months in role * Some 96% of STOXX 600 constituents in red Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Thyagaraju Adinarayan. Reach him on Messenger to share your thoughts on market moves: rm://thyagaraju.adinarayan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net SELL-OFF, DAY TWO: 96% OF STOXX IN THE RED (1600 GMT) The sell-off ran into a second day, sending the STOXX 600 down 2.3% and marking the biggest two-day loss for the region's equity market since Brexit. Star performers like LVMH, SAP and Nestle are among the top five negative weights to the STOXX 600, all down more than 2%, but year-to-date these stocks remain up between 22% and 33%.
- Reuters - UK Focus
LIVE MARKETS-Selling the winners
- Reuters - UK Focus
LIVE MARKETS-Sinking yuan: stimulus with headwinds for foreign investors
* European stocks sell off again * STOXX 600 -2.2%, FTSE 100 down 2.4% * Miners, autos, chips, luxury stocks top fallers * HSBC ousts CEO after just 18 months in role * Some 96% of STOXX 600 constituents in red Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Thyagaraju Adinarayan. Reach him on Messenger to share your thoughts on market moves: rm://thyagaraju.adinarayan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net SINKING YUAN: STIMULUS WITH POTENTIAL FOR FOREIGN INVESTORS (1517 GMT) As investors assess the far-reaching repercussions of the sinking Chinese yuan overnight, Janus Henderson portfolio manager for Chinese equities strategy Charlie Awdry cautions the extra volatility due to summer in the northern hemisphere and rising Hong Kong tensions make that job even harder.
- Reuters - UK Focus
LIVE MARKETS-Europe: worst 2-day decline since 2016
* European stocks sell off again * STOXX 600 -1.9%, FTSE 100 down 2.2% * Miners, autos, chips, luxury stocks top fallers * HSBC ousts CEO after just 18 months in role * Some 96% of STOXX 600 constituents in red Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Thyagaraju Adinarayan. Reach him on Messenger to share your thoughts on market moves: rm://thyagaraju.adinarayan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net EUROPE: WORST 2-DAY DECLINE SINCE 2016 (1200 GMT) The cost of Trump's tweets on trade with China in recent months have been costly with trillions being wiped off - we saw one major rout in May and now again in August. Nearly 4.5%, or half-a-trillion dollars, has been wiped off European stocks' values in the last two days, the biggest two-day decline since June 24 & 27 -- the massive two-day sell-off right after Britain voted to leave the EU.
- Reuters - UK Focus
IBM and other companies launch new blockchain network for supply management
International Business Machines Corp announced on Monday a new blockchain network aimed at improving manual and cumbersome supply chain management. Supply chain management involves overseeing the flow of goods and services, such as tracking the movement and storage of raw materials, inventory, and finished goods. It has been identified as one area that can benefit from blockchain technology, a shared database maintained by a network of computers connected to the internet.
- Simply Wall St.
Vodafone Group (LON:VOD) Takes On Some Risk With Its Use Of Debt
Legendary fund manager Li Lu (who Charlie Munger backed) once said, 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility...
- Fool.co.uk
Here’s why the Vodafone and Just Eat share prices did so well in July
Can these FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE: UKX) shares keep up the momentum after a strong share price performance in July?
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 3-BT ready for UK PM Johnson's fibre broadband challenge
BT is ready to play its part in achieving Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan to roll out full-fibre broadband across Britain, but said it needed it to make a fair return on the 30 billion pounds ($36.3 billion) the plan would cost the industry. "We welcome the government's ambition for full-fibre broadband across the country and we are confident we will see further steps to stimulate investment," Chief Executive Philip Jansen said on Friday. BT, Britain's biggest broadband and mobile operator, is rolling out fibre to 4 million premises by March 2021, and plans another 15 million by the mid-2020s if the government and regulator makes it worth its while.
- Reuters - UK Focus
Two German fibre groups for sale; buyer could combine them -sources
Two German fibre-optic networks operators are coming up for sale, presenting an opportunity for a potential buyer to create a sizeable player in a fragmented market where Deutsche Telekom dominates, sources close to the matter said. Inexio, 59%-owned by buyout group Warburg Pincus, is expected to launch a sale in the second half of the year that could value it at more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), the sources said. Rival Deutsche Glasfaser, majority-owned by private equity investor KKR, is also preparing a sale which may start in late 2019 or early 2020, they added.
- Reuters - UK Focus
Vodafone purchases spark S&P downgrade
Vodafone's bonds widened on Thursday, after the company's debt-funded purchase of assets owned by Liberty Global caused S&P to cut its rating. Vodafone, which last appeared in the euro benchmark market in May with a €2.5bn triple-trancher, was downgraded one notch by the ratings agency to BBB. S&P said the downgrade from BBB+ was driven by the largely debt-financed purchase of Liberty Global's operations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania for €18.4bn.
- Bloomberg
Croatian Tech Firm That Makes Uber Calls Private Weighs U.S. IPO
(Bloomberg) -- Infobip, a Croatian technology company that counts Uber Technologies Inc. and Burger King among its clients, is weighing an initial public offering in New York as it makes plans to expand in the U.S.A public listing “is something that we are discussing at the moment," Silvio Kutic, co-founder and chief executive officer of Infobip, said in a phone interview. “We are constantly thinking, checking, when to go in this direction and maybe in the next few months, half a year, a year, there shall be a decision."The company provides corporations with technology to send notifications to customers through different channels, such as WhatsApp or text message. In March, the company said Uber is using its technology to mask contact details when drivers and riders communicate. The company’s customers also include Vodafone Group Plc, Costco Wholesale Corp. and Zendesk Inc.Founded in 2006, Infobip has some 1,750 employees who helped generated about 435 million euros ($485 million) in revenue in 2018, according to Kutic. Employees own 10% of the shares, with the rest shared among the company’s three founders.“We had about 30% annual revenue growth in the last two years and this year we are even accelerating," Kutic said. Demand for alerts from SMS phone messages are “still growing like crazy globally."The sector is highly fragmented. Infobip has strong domestic rivals in countries such as China and Brazil, but the largest is U.S.-focused Twilio Inc.Infobip is planning to take on San Francisco-based Twilio in its home market, where it sees most scope for growth. The company bolstered its presence in recent months in the U.S. by opening an office in New York, it’s second in the country, and after acquiring assets from Ericsson AB.“We are now preparing for our big push,” Kutic said. "Today, about 35% of our revenue comes from U.S.-based customers, but these are the digital native companies from Silicon Valley, who operate with us internationally."The U.S. is also where Kutic, who owns the majority of the shares together with two other partners, would someday like to see his company trading."For IT companies, there is much more liquidity and better exposure" on U.S. exchanges, he said. "It would be the crown on our works."To contact the reporter on this story: Rodrigo Orihuela in Madrid at rorihuela@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Amy ThomsonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- TechCrunch
Capital One breach also hit other major companies, say researchers
The data breach at Capital One may be the "tip of the iceberg" and may affectother major companies, according to security researchers
