The Lemon Fool

Hi maximan,

You might want to change the topic title to "Vodafone (VOD)" to be consistent with the other threads.

regards,
Darka

Darka wrote:You might want to change the topic title to "Vodafone (VOD)" to be consistent with the other threads.

It's not something maximan can now do. Far simpler to report the post and the Moderators will amend (when time permits) and which I've done.

Whilst here, Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) RNS announcements may be found below:

https://www.investegate.co.uk/CompData. ... ouncements
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exc ... 9GBGBXSET1

The Investors section of their website is here:

https://www.vodafone.com/content/index/investors.html

Darka wrote:Hi maximan,

You might want to change the topic title to "Vodafone (VOD)" to be consistent with the other threads.

regards,
Darka

Thanks for that Darka I did not notice. A senior moment.
Next time I will as I cannot work out how to edit.

Vodafone Super WiFi Banishes Broadband Blackspots

https://www.investegate.co.uk/vodafone- ... 00046636Q/

maximan wrote:Next time I will as I cannot work out how to edit.

It's quite easy, if you can do it at all. For the first 15 minutes or so after you post, a 'pencil' button and an 'x' button appear (for you, not for others!) alongside the usual " (for a quoting reply) and ! (for a report) buttons at the top right of your post. Click the 'pencil' button to edit it, or the 'x' button to delete it. But after the 15 minutes or so are over, you can no longer do either of those things or even try to - the facilities are basically only for correcting quickly-noticed mistakes.

Note that if you edit, you've got to get the edits submitted in time after you originally posted - so if you want to make big edits, it's probably safer to take a quick copy of the post's text and delete it, then complete the edits at your leisure on the copy and submit again once they're done.

Gengulphus

Gengulphus wrote:

maximan wrote:Next time I will as I cannot work out how to edit.

...But after the 15 minutes or so are over, you can no longer do either of those things or even try to - the facilities are basically only for correcting quickly-noticed mistakes.

After that period feel free to click the report button and ask someone to effect any easily describable corrections. C.

Two announcements from Vod on IoT (internet of Things).
www.investegate.co.uk/article.aspx?id=2 ... 9341Q&fe=1
www.investegate.co.uk/article.aspx?id=2 ... 9358Q&fe=1

Good news for VOD ( I think?...)

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... edge-funds

Let's hope so.

Perhaps that news will push the yield back down to a dull and stodgy 9% ...

This from TMF;

Will the Vodafone share price ever make a successful comeback?

The Vodafone Group (LSE: VOD) share price is trading at levels not seen since the financial crisis, 10 years ago. Is this a clear signal to buy, or a sign of possible distress?

The big risk for investors is the firm’s rising level of debt. I’ve previously been bullish about this stock, but new developments last week have prompted me to take a fresh look. Here’s what I think.

Between a rock and a hard place?

If a profitable company needs cash to fund an acquisition, the first choice is usually debt. But if the company already has too much debt, then sometimes it will choose to raise the cash by issuing new shares.

Vodafone is in this situation at the moment. It needs to come up with €10.8bn in cash to finance last year’s €18.4bn deal to buy European cable operator Liberty Global.

Unfortunately, the group’s net debt is already high, at €32bn. That represents roughly 2.2 times the group’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). As a general rule, I prefer to see debt below 2x EBITDA.

https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2019/0 ... -comeback/

Vodafone Expands Partnership Programme to Movicel in Angola

Vodafone and Movicel Angola today announced a strategic consultancy agreement as part of Vodafone's Partner Markets programme in Africa.

Under the non-equity agreement, Vodafone will provide strategic and operational support in a range of areas, including consumer marketing, technology, and business operations. This strategic engagement will see both companies collaborate on further potential opportunities to benefit their customers.

Vodafone Partner Markets Chief Executive Diego Massidda said: "I am delighted to start this strategic engagement with Movicel, and I look forward to bringing the best of Vodafone's innovation, services and expertise to Angola to further develop the business and the wider digital economy. I hope that this will build into a strong, lasting relationship that will benefit customers of both companies."

https://www.investegate.co.uk/vodafone- ... 00060896U/

The dividend yield on Vodafone is very high at the moment. That's not because of dividend increases but because of the fall in the share price.

Here's a possible contributory reason.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -bond-sale

They are funding their latest acquisition by issuing convertibles. These are bonds that will convert into equity. When this happens, the interests of existing shareholders will be diluted, since they will own a reduced proportion of the Group.

Alaric wrote:The dividend yield on Vodafone is very high at the moment. That's not because of dividend increases but because of the fall in the share price......................They are funding their latest acquisition by issuing convertibles. These are bonds that will convert into equity. When this happens, the interests of existing shareholders will be diluted, since they will own a reduced proportion of the Group.

AIUI Management are committed to buybacks equivalent to the convertibles-issued in a timely manner........

YeeWo wrote:AIUI Management are committed to buybacks equivalent to the convertibles-issued in a timely manner........

Can they afford to do this and maintain the dividend?

With the dividend yield now above 10%, is this a fantastic bargain for income seeking investors or a market expectation that the dividend is going to be cut?

Alaric wrote:Can they afford to do this and maintain the dividend? With the dividend yield now above 10%, is this a fantastic bargain for income seeking investors or a market expectation that the dividend is going to be cut?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -bond-sale

Salient points IMHO from the above article: -
"Vodafone Chief Executive Officer Nick Read is trying to rein in debt as he prepares to close the Liberty deal, which still needs approval from European competition authorities. The mandatory convertible bond sale plans, previously reported by Bloomberg, follow Vodafone’s issuance of almost 2.9 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) of mandatory convertible bonds three years ago."

"Vodafone said it expects the mandatory convertible bonds, excluding the value of coupon payments, to be accounted for as equity. They are scheduled to convert into shares in 2021 and 2022. The company said it could buy back shares to mitigate dilution and fund the purchase by issuing hybrid securities."
^ The bolding here is mine!
In summary it's best to Judge Ourselves if Vodafone can "afford" to maintain the dividend. IMHO, FWIW, I feel Vodafone will continue playing this far-too-clever-by-far game with hybrid securities which can accounted for as debt/equity/whatever for the medium term in the hope that the acquired business will produce sufficient growth/efficiencies to be able to sustain the debt and dividend. Clearly this doesn't bode well for the SP or Dividend-Growth in the short term. In the long term if integration is painless and Vodafone can sustain profitable growth then it may very well prove to be a very wise move by Vodafone Management. British American Tobacco is in a similar bind with the rather expensive acquisition of Reynolds American.

This from TMF, penned by Kevin Godbold;

Is Vodafone’s 8%-plus dividend yield safe?

For a long while, the Vodafone Group (LSE: VOD) share price looked too high to me and I thought the company was over-valued. However, since January 2018, the telecoms stock has plunged around 40% and the dividend yield has bubbled up to more than 8%.

Are you hunting for attractive, sustainable dividends from big companies like Vodafone? Read on and I’ll dig a little deeper to gauge whether the firm can keep up its dividend payments in the years ahead.

https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2019/0 ... ield-safe/

Unfortunately the MF article does not tell us much we did not already know. Clearly the dividend is not safe, and I no longer hold the share.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:Unfortunately the MF article does not tell us much we did not already know. Clearly the dividend is not safe, and I no longer hold the share.

Dod

As much as I agree that you and I are aware of the risks, I feel there may well be other readers here who're not, and might be enlightened by my op.

Ian.

idpickering wrote: I feel there may well be other readers here who're not, and might be enlightened by my op.

VOD appeared as a top selection in a recent Stephen Bland "how to build a HYP" article.

They are doing some financial engineering involving debt for equity swaps in order to finance a proposed acquisition.