Vodafonewatch, issue 2008.10 snapshot
November 18, 2008
BREAKING NEWS: Vodafone Group confirmed agreement to acquire a further 15% stake in South Africa’s Vodacom Group, paying approximately £1.3bn after debt consideration, to take its holding to a controlling 65% and convert Vodacom to ‘subsidiary’ status. The transaction promises to be positive in terms of ‘adjusted’ earnings and cash generation. A couple of interesting new details are the plan to maintain Vodacom as an African regional brand and operating hub (excluding existing investments in Ghana Telecom and Kenya’s Safaricom) and the absence of an obvious block on Vodafone raising its stake further once the remaining 35% of Vodacom is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2009.
Vodafonewatch, issue 2008.09 snapshot
October 14, 2008
GROUP: Vodafone Group announced a wide-ranging revamp of its senior management layer to accompany the split of its EMAPA emerging markets division in two. The company said that Paul Donovan, EMAPA’s presiding Chief Executive, will step down at the turn of the year, and appointed Morten Lundal and Nick Read to head the new, Central Europe & Africa and Asia-Pacific & Middle East units, respectively. Guy Laurence, currently Chief Executive of Vodafone Netherlands, will replace Read at Vodafone UK. The Group looked outside for Michael Combes, its new Chief Executive of Western Europe — a position vacated by Vittorio Colao’s elevation to Group Chief Executive. It also moved management of its stake in Verizon Wireless — which was again subject to sale rumours — from EMAPA into the corporate centre, where it will be overseen directly by Colao; Andy Halford, the Group’s Chief Financial Officer; and Terry Kramer (promoted to Group Strategy and Business Improvement Director). [pp.3-8.] Read more
Vodafone reorg - Donovan out; Combes in; VZW in play?
September 9, 2008
Highlights
- Vodafone is restructuring its Eastern Europe, Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Affiliates (EMAPA) division on 1 January 2009, creating two new units - Central Europe/Africa Region and Asia-Pacific Region. Oddly, Middle East does not feature in either of the new names, despite the Group having an Egyptian business and setting up in Qatar. Chief Executives have yet to be confirmed for the new divisions.
- Paul Donovan, head of EMAPA, Vodafone’s number-two executive, is to leave at the end of January 2009.
- Michel Combes has been recruited as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the (Western) Europe division, stepping into the old shoes of now-Group CEO Vittorio Colao, starting 1 October 2008. Combes will also assume responsibility for Global Marketing, Global Technology, and Vodafone Business Services. This appears to make him Colao’s number-two. Combes, born in 1962, is a French national who has spent much of his career within France Télécom, but most recently has been CEO of the €1.6bn, private equity-backed TéléDiffusion de France (TDF Group, an acquisitive French television transmission company that has been expanding in Europe). The biography provided by Vodafone appears to highlight his executive, technical, and transformational skills, but not his mobile connections. Combes is also a member of supervisory and directors’ boards at a number of companies, including Assystem (an engineer where he was once General Manager), AtosOrigin (IT services), Europacorp, Infogrames (gaming), and Weather Investments (Orascom Telecom, Wind Italy, etc.).
- All three new CEOs will have a seat on the Group Executive Committee.
- Terry Kramer has been promoted from Group Human Resources (HR) Director to Group Strategy and Business Improvement Director. He will be “responsible for strategy development, for the initiatives aimed at productivity and efficiency gains across the Group, and the governance and coordination of the relationship with Verizon Wireless”.
- The Group’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless (VZW), previously part of EMAPA, will now be managed directly by Vittorio Colao, Andy Halford (Group Chief Financial Officer, and previously holder of the same role at VZW), and Terry Kramer. Read more
Vodafonewatch, issue 2008.08 snapshot
September 1, 2008
GROUP: Vittorio Colao was said to be considering an operational shake-up that could see the EMAPA emerging markets division split in two — Asia and Africa — but there was no more news regarding plans for Western Europe, his old hunting ground. In his departing words, Arun Sarin denied that he had been pushed out, but again seemed to rail at the UK’s corporate governance straightjacket and meddling investors. As Vodafone completed its acquisition of Ghana Telecom, M&A talk moved on to Oman and Vietnam, and, longer ago, strategic investment in MEA powerhouse and one-time Partner Zain. Colao told the media that Vodafone can adapt and presumably will thrive in the current economic climate, reiterating the firm’s emerging markets growth strategy, while keeping open options for the company’s £35bn-plus investment in Verizon Wireless. [pp.3,4,5,6,19.] Read more
Vodafonewatch, snapshot of issue 2008.07
August 6, 2008
Q1 FY08-09 KPIs: Vodafone’s Key Performance Indicators bombed, with investors spooked by warnings of weakness, both in Spain and for the full-year revenue outlook. However, Vodafone may have encountered friendly fire, possibly over-playing Spanish woes and inadvertently broadcasting executives’ unease, despite reiterating bottom-line outlook. Apart from decimating Arun Sarin’s parting parade, the fallout hurt the wider industry, which has had a confusing reporting season. Elsewhere, as Vodafone saw limited upside from a £1bn share-buyback damage-limitation exercise, its associates and investments reported far more upbeat financials and KPIs, including SFR in France, Verizon Wireless in the US, and China Mobile, as did arch-rival Telefónica. The Chief Executives of the German and Spanish OpCos, the Q1 fall guys, attempted to mitigate their underperformance, flagging regulatory issues and past over-performance, respectively. [pp.3-17,25,28,55,58.] Read more
Vodafonewatch — Wordle view
July 15, 2008
Created by Wordle.
Vodafone confirms $900m acquisition of Ghana Telecom
July 3, 2008
Vodafone issued a statement confirming reports (Vodafonewatch, passim) that it is acquiring control of Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited (GT) from the country’s government, paying $900m (£452m/€570m) for a 70%-stake.
This gives the venture an enterprise value of $1.3bn, and the state will retain a 30%-minority interest. The Group will undoubtedly be hoping to echo the success of is South African and Kenyan joint-ventures, with Vodacom market leader in South Africa (SA), and Safaricom now East Africa’s most successful company. Read more
Vodafonewatch, issue 2008.06
June 27, 2008
GROUP: Francisco Román was rumoured to be the probable replacement for Vittorio Colao to lead Vodafone’s Western Europe division, following the latter’s elevation to the Group Chief Executive role on the departure of Arun Sarin. Sarin’s departure and legacy at the company continues to be dogged by the fallout of the putative 2006 coup, with a newspaper investigative report claiming Vodafone was spying on its own board at the time. [pp.3-6,7-9.] Read more
Vodafone present at birth of the Symbian Foundation
June 25, 2008
Vodafone is a founder member of the non-profit Symbian Foundation, which melds the Symbian OS handset platform with the three related user interfaces — Nokia’s S60, Sony Ericsson and Motorola’s UIQ, and NTT DoCoMo’s MOAP — into a new unified “open mobile software platform”. The Foundation is expected to come into being in the first half of 2009, which will follow Nokia’s €209m (£165m) buyout of its partners at Symbian Ltd. Read more
Vodafone to introduce iPhone on 11 July
June 10, 2008
Following a very low key preliminary announcement in May 2008, when it secured distribution rights to Apple’s iPhone across ten markets, Vodafone became more typically ebullient in June when it confirmed it will offer the second-generation 3G model from 11 July. Read more
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- BTwatch, issue 2008.09 snapshot
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- Telefonicawatch, issue 2008.10 snapshot
- Vodafonewatch, issue 2008.09 snapshot
- Mobile Serviceswatch, issue 2008.09 snapshot
- BTwatch, issue 2008.07-08 snapshot
- Telefonicawatch, issue 2008.07-08 snapshot
- Vodafone reorg - Donovan out; Combes in; VZW in play?
- Vodafonewatch, issue 2008.08 snapshot
- Mobile Serviceswatch, issue 2008.08 snapshot
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