Un paio di giorni fa era arrivata anche le trimestrale di fine anno di Vodafone, che seguiamo un po' più alla lontana, trattandosi di un emittente molto grande, operante per intero in un settore conservativo quale quello delle telecom sulle cui vicende le trimestrali finiscono per incidere relativamente
Qui i risultati del trimestre che si chiude al 31 dic 2008 (il Q3 dell'esercizio 2008-2009 di Vodafone) in pillole hanno visto una forte salita del dato delle vendite dovuto tuttavia soprattutto agli effetti della drammatica svalutazione subita dalla GBP rispetto all'Euro (in Europa occidentale Vodafone realizza i 2/3 del proprio fatturato).
Al netto dell'impatto del cambio, il fatturato è calato annualmente dell'1%, risultato sul quale incidono il -2,8% dell'Europa e il dato in robusta crescita dell'Europa dell'Est e soprattutto dell'Asia. Va male in Spagna (-5,8%), dove l'effetto della crisi sembra incidere anche sul consumo di telefonia mobile, va benissimo in India (+30%).
Rivisti al rialzo, sempre in virtù dell'effetto cambio sulla GBP, i target sia per il fatturato che per l'EBITDA ed il free cash flow dell'esercizio che si chiude al 31 marzo prossimo.
Il Ceo Colao ha comunque confermato che Vodafone è in linea con il proprio programma di contenimento dei costi in misura di 1 mld GBP l'anno da conseguire entro il 2011.
Vodafone Third-Quarter Sales Rise on Pound’s Drop (Update4)
By Simon Thiel
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) --
Vodafone Group Plc, the world’s largest mobile-phone company,
said third-quarter sales increased 14 percent as the pound slid and revenue climbed in India.
Vodafone advanced the most in two months in London trading after raising sales and profit forecasts to reflect the currency’s decline.
Sales in the three months to Dec. 31 climbed to 10.47 billion pounds ($14.9 billion) from 9.16 billion pounds a year earlier, the Newbury, England-based company said in a statement today.
The pound slumped 23 percent against the euro in 2008, increasing the value of Vodafone’s euro-denominated sales when converted to pounds.
Excluding currency swings and acquisitions, revenue fell 1 percent as growth in Asia and Africa failed to make up for a decline in Europe, where the company generates about two-thirds of its sales.
“Currency changes obviously helped Vodafone,”
John Clarke, a telecommunications analyst with Brewin Dolphin Securities, said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. “But investors are relieved about these good figures as they show the resilience of Vodafone in difficult economic times.”
Vodafone made progress on its plan to reduce costs by 1 billion pounds by March 2011, Chief Executive Officer
Vittorio Colao said. The measures will have “some impact on headcount,” he told reporters on a conference call today. He declined to say how many jobs may be affected.
Shares Climb
Vodafone
advanced as much as 7.4 percent to 137.65 pence, the biggest intraday gain since Nov. 24, and traded at 137.3 pence as of 12:10 p.m. in London. Sales surpassed the average analyst estimate of 10.29 billion pounds compiled by Bloomberg News via phone and e-mail.
In November, the company cut its full-year sales forecast for the second time in four months.
Vodafone now predicts a full-year adjusted operating profit of 11.5 billion pounds to 12 billion pounds on sales of 40.6 billion pounds to 41.5 billion pounds. That compares with a previous forecast for adjusted operating profit of 11 billion pounds to 11.5 billion pounds on sales of 38.8 billion pounds to 39.7 billion pounds.
In Europe, Vodafone’s sales excluding currency swings and acquisitions dropped 2.8 percent. That compares with a 3.5 percent increase for Africa and Eastern Europe and a 9.2 percent gain in Asia and the Middle East.
India’s Growth
“Vodafone’s strategy to expand in fast-growing markets really makes sense,”
Christopher Nicholson, an analyst at Oraca in London, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
Service revenue in India jumped 30 percent, a slowdown from the previous quarter amid growing competition.
To counter the economic slowdown in some markets, Vodafone reduced prices, Colao said, adding that this helped to increase minutes of usage by 10 percent in the quarter. Equipment sales dropped by 17 percent or 18 percent as the company’s Christmas business was weaker from a year earlier, Colao said.
Mid-range mobile-phones are becoming less popular as consumers increasingly buy either cheaper or more expensive handsets, Colao said. One of the most popular handsets was the BlackBerry Storm, which Research In Motion Ltd. started selling through Vodafone and other carriers in November, he added.
Spanish Revenue
“Our underlying performance showed similar trends to the previous quarter,” Colao said in the statement. “In the context of the current economic environment, we have continued to implement our strategy, with an emphasis on customer value, mobile data, enterprise and fixed broadband.”
Service revenue in Spain dropped 5.8 percent amid a “deteriorating market environment” that put pressure on usage in some customer segments.
Vodafone has expanded in emerging markets in the past two years with
acquisitions in Turkey, India and Ghana to make up for slower growth in Europe. Vodafone added 9.5 million new customers in the fiscal third quarter for a total of 289 million on Dec. 31.
The company bought a 52 percent stake in Hutchison Essar Ltd., now India’s third-largest wireless provider, for $10.7 billion in May 2007, and purchased Turkey’s Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon Hizmetleri AS for $4.55 billion in 2006. On May 28, Vodafone and a local partner said they will pay $2.1 billion for Qatar’s second wireless license.
Vodafone today increased its prediction for full-year free cash flow to between 5.5 billion pounds and 6 billion pounds, from an earlier forecast of 5.2 billion pounds to 5.7 billion pounds.
“This is a nice bonus for investors,” Brewin Dolphin’s Clarke said. “People are so focused on dividends at the moment that anything to do with free cash flow will encourage people on the dividend outlook.”