By Anna Peel. Originally published at ValueWalk.
You have to give it to them Vodafone Group plc (LON:VOD) is an Olympic champion at treading water. Full-year results today could be summarised as mostly the same with a tiny bit more profit.
But with a major new shareholder announced just yesterday it seemed unlikely we’d get any big news today.
Q1 2022 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Activism At Vodafone
Vodafone has been under serious pressure from investors, with activist investor Cevian recently leading the charge to fix Vodafone.
If Cevian had their way Vodafone might look more like a German telecoms giant complemented by a nice towers/infrastructure business and a leading telecoms and fintech business in Africa.
And while this is what Vodafone looks like if you close one eye, it’s the UK, Spain and Italian businesses that continue to cause them a headache.
Sit tight for FY2023. Things could get interesting.
Nick Read has been longing for an ally to help fight back against ever noisier activists and Vodafone’s newest shareholder E& could be just that.
E&’s largely owned by the government of the Gulf state and conveniently run by an ex and long-time Vodafone employee, who judging by the announcement yesterday still seems to think the sun shines and crucially they are taking a supportive role (for now).
There’s no doubt this takes the heat off Read making immediate decisions but for a chance at any share price recovery and genuine business improvement, Read will likely have to do something soon.
For now Vodafone remains a sprawling dividend payer. But you’d hope with the latest shakeup in the board room, we’ll be able to say something different next year.
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