The Lemon Fool

Vodafone and Sunrise today announced a new partnership agreement in Switzerland, which began on 1 January 2020.

This strategic partnership will allow Sunrise's Enterprise customers to benefit from a range of Vodafone Business services, including mobile connectivity, roaming and central procurement. Over time, the companies plan to expand their relationship to deliver fixed/mobile converged services to Enterprises across Europe and beyond, as well as leverage their combined 5G scale and leadership to ensure their customers can benefit from cutting-edge gigabit networks.

Vodafone Partner Markets Chief Executive Diego Massidda said: "We are delighted that Sunrise has decided to join our Partner Market network. We are excited about working with the team and being able to offer their customers access to our extensive range of innovative Enterprise products and services."

Vodafone Group Plc1 ("Vodafone") announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding2 with Saudi Telecom Company ("stc") in relation to a potential sale of Vodafone's 55% shareholding in Vodafone Egypt to stc.

Highlights
 Continued organic service revenue growth in Q3, up 0.8%* (Q2: 0.7%*).
 Similar performance in Europe (Q3: -1.4%*, Q2: -1.4%*), with ongoing recovery in Spain and acceleration in the UK offset by a tougher prior year comparison in Italy. Retail revenues grew in Germany, supported by strong cable broadband net adds.
 Good growth in Rest of the World (Q3: 9.1%*, Q2: 8.9%*) as continued recovery in South Africa was partially offset by lower growth in Turkey.
 Good progress on strategic priorities during the quarter:

Darka wrote:I'm probably missing something but what is the benefit of the Vantage Towers Demerger to existing shareholders?

Alaric wrote:

Darka wrote:I'm probably missing something but what is the benefit of the Vantage Towers Demerger to existing shareholders?

Vodafone will replace the value of the business sold with the proceeds from the IPO. Whether that's good or bad is likely to depend on how much they get in the IPO and what they do with the proceeds.

daveh wrote: as Vodafone is retaining a majority stake in the business

Alaric wrote:

daveh wrote: as Vodafone is retaining a majority stake in the business

If they are doing that, it's also a means of raising capital for the whole group. Alternatives might have been a Rights issue, or taking on more debt.

IPO update

On track for an IPO in early 2021

Since the announcement of our intention to separate our European tower infrastructure operations in July 2019, we have been working hard to create Vantage Towers. Since May 2020, the business has been operationally separate, with the full senior management team in place running the day-to-day operations and preparing for monetisation. We remain on track for an IPO in early 2021.

Vantage Towers' headquarters is located in Düsseldorf, Germany. We expect the corporate structure for listing to be an Aktiengesellschaft (" AG"), and we intend to pursue a listing on the Prime Standard Segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Work remains ongoing to determine the optimal capital structure and further information will be made available in due course.

Vodafone intends to retain a majority stake in Vantage Towers post IPO, given the strategic nature of the tower infrastructure and the potential value creation opportunity. In its role as majority shareholder, Vodafone is committed to supporting Vantage Towers to create value by empowering the management team to drive growth from increasing the utilisation of its existing infrastructure, including with third parties, as well as deploying incremental capital to capture new growth opportunities and efficiencies. Vodafone is also committed to strong corporate governance with appropriate independent Supervisory Board representation, including an independent chairperson for Vantage Towers.

Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone") today announces that it has agreed with Bharti Airtel Limited ("Bharti Airtel") and Vodafone Idea Ltd ("Vodafone Idea") to proceed with completion of the merger of Indus Towers Limited ("Indus Towers") and Bharti Infratel Limited ("Bharti Infratel" and, following completion, the "Combined Company").

It is expected that Vodafone will be issued with 760 million new shares in the Combined Company at closing in exchange for its 42% shareholding in Indus Towers on the basis that (a) Providence Equity Partners ("Providence") has elected to receive shares in the Combined Company in respect of its 4.85% shareholding in Indus Towers, and (b) Vodafone Idea has elected to sell its full 11.15% shareholding in Indus Towers for cash. The shares issued to Vodafone would be equivalent to 28.2% in the Combined Company. Bharti Airtel's shareholding in Bharti Infratel would be diluted from 53.5% to 36.7%. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone will jointly control the Combined Company.

At the current Bharti Infratel market valuation, Vodafone's stake in the Combined Company would have a value of approximately INR 151 billion (€1.7 billion) and Vodafone Idea would receive approximately INR 40 billion (€464 million) in cash upon completion.

(investegate (idpickering) wrote: Vodafone would receive approximately INR 40 billion (€464 million) in cash upon completion.

Alaric wrote:

(investegate (idpickering) wrote: Vodafone would receive approximately INR 40 billion (€464 million) in cash upon completion.

Any thoughts on what they might do with this?

Use to pay off debt?
Finance expansion?
Pay a special dividend?
Support their ordinary dividend?

Vantage Towers Capital Markets Day to be held on 17 November 2020

The Vantage Towers management team will be hosting a Capital Markets Day on 17 November, which will cover the strategy, operations and selected financial information of the business (the "CMD").

Vantage Towers is Europe's leading tower infrastructure operator, with over 68,000 towers across 9 markets, and #1 or #2 market positions by number of sites in almost all markets. Vantage Towers has highly secure, predictable cash flows typically with inflation-linked adjustments, underpinned by long-term contractual arrangements, with highly rated tenants, including Vodafone as the anchor tenant.

Vantage Towers currently has a tenancy ratio of 1.5x across the portfolio, with compelling structural growth opportunities from mobile coverage obligations and increasing end-user demand for data, with potential to expand into adjacent services and through targeted M&A. Vantage Towers supports Europe's digitalisation by establishing and maintaining extensive, high quality and resilient networks, which form the backbone of digital services and a sustainable digital society.

The CMD will be a virtual only event comprising presentation materials and on-demand webcasts available from 7am GMT on 17 November 2020, followed by a live webcast Q&A session at 2pm GMT on 17 November 2020. No registration is required in advance and all information will be available via the Vodafone investor website ( investors.vodafone.com ) and the Vantage Towers website ( vantagetowers.com ).

To accommodate the CMD, Vodafone Group Plc FY21 interim results will now be released on 16 November 2020.

Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone") announces that due diligence has been substantively completed with respect to the potential sale of its 55% stake in Vodafone Egypt to Saudi Telecom Company ("stc"). Despite the expiry of the Memorandum of Understanding, Vodafone remains in discussion with stc to finalise the transaction in the near future.

Vodafone now looks to stc and Telecom Egypt to find a suitable agreement to enable the transaction to close.

20% of supplier selection criteria now based on commitments to diversity and the environment

Vodafone Group will evaluate suppliers on their commitments to diversity, inclusion and the environment when they tender for new work, ensuring that Vodafone's supply chain contributes towards Vodafone's purpose to improve the lives of 1 billion people, while halving its environmental impact by 2025.

From October 2020, a supplier's 'purpose' will account for 20% of the evaluation criteria for a 'Request For Quotation' (RFQ) to provide Vodafone with products or services. Suppliers will be assessed on their commitment and performance to diversity & inclusion, the environment and health & safety in categories where it is a risk.